‘Ironheart’ Just Confirmed a Major Fan Theory With a Surprise Connection to the First ‘Iron Man’ Movie
Major spoilers ahead for episode 3 of Marvel’s “Ironheart”
Turns out, Joe McGillicuddy isn’t actually a real person. So, who is Alden Ehrenreich actually playing in “Ironheart?” Well, fans clocked it from the beginning; he’s Ezekiel Stane, son of Obadiah Stane. And “Ironheart” just connected itself to the very beginning of the entire MCU.
In Episode 3 of Marvel’s latest series, now streaming on Disney+, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) comes to her friend Joe (Ehrenreich) for some help. As they chat in his kitchen, a bag of ashes falls out, prompting Riri to freak out a bit. She quickly pieces together that the ashes belong to Joe’s father, but the bag is labeled “Obadiah S.”
Riri forces Joe to come clean, and he reveals that yes, the S stands for Stane, and his own real name is Ezekiel Stane. Of course, the reveal won’t come as much of a surprise to eagle-eyed fans.
Earlier this month, when a new “Ironheart” featurette was released, fans picked up on an image of a technologically enhanced arm with electricity traveling through the fingers. It looked pretty similar to how Ezekiel looks in the comic books, thanks to his biomechanical enhancements.
For those less familiar with the comic books but more with the MCU, Zeke’s family ties actually go back all the way to the start of the MCU. We first met Obadiah Stane in “Iron Man,” played by Jeff Bridges. You might remember his infamous line: “Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!“
He was Tony Stark’s partner and mentor, which Riri notes while confirming Ezekiel’s identity. He was killed in a battle with Tony, after Obadiah tried to get rid of the billionaire in an effort to keep manufacturing and selling weapons. Tony came back from his time in captivity a changed man, and when he wanted to change the business in turn, Obadiah stole his technology and tried to kill Tony with a supersuit of his own. But that’s not the official story.
As Joe/Zeke explains, Obadiah’s legacy has remained mostly intact because the official line is that he was killed tragically in a plane crash. No one in the MCU at large, save for Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, knows about his murderous turn before he died.
The first three episodes of “Ironheart” are now streaming on Disney+.
The post ‘Ironheart’ Just Confirmed a Major Fan Theory With a Surprise Connection to the First ‘Iron Man’ Movie appeared first on TheWrap.