Ironheart: The True Identity Of Alden Ehrenreich's Marvel Character Explained

Prepare your armor, reader: This article contains spoilers for "Ironheart" season 1, episode 3, "We in Danger, Girl."

For viewers who haven't paid attention to casting announcements, "Ironheart" has some fun surprises. Early on, Eric André pops up as Stuart Clarke, a tech specialist who has some serious difficulties getting liftoff for his chosen codename, Rampage. Later, we meet Alden Ehrenreich ("Hail, Caesar!," "Solo: A Star Wars Story," "Brave New World"), who plays Joe McGillicuddy — a suburban "Live, Laugh, Love" nerd who somehow has the funds and connections to maintain a secret bunker full of highly illegal weapons technology.

From the very beginning, it's clear that something's off about ol' Joe for the aforementioned reason, as well as the fact that it's Ehrenreich playing him. While the actor does a great job portraying Joe's meekness, nervous energy, and general social ineptitude, it's hard to shake off the feeling that you don't cast an actor with his pedigree — the man played Han Solo once, for crying out loud — for a role like this.

Perhaps realizing this, "Ironheart" doesn't keep up the charade for too long, as "We in Danger, Girl" reveals that Joe's real identity is far more ominous than viewers might expect. He's actually Ezekiel Stane, the son of "Iron Man" villain Obadiah "Iron Monger" Stane (Jeff Bridges), and has adopted a new identity because he (unlike the general public) knows about his father's supervillain antics and wants to avoid the same path. This revelation is a fun and unexpected way to bring the Stane family back in action after spending what's effectively the entire duration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the sidelines. It could also signify great things for Ezekiel, who has potential to become a major player in the MCU's future.

Like his MCU counterpart, the comics version of Ezekiel "Zeke" Stane stayed away from the limelight and built a massive weapons stash. However, that's where the similarities end. From a young age, Obadiah trained Zeke for two things — to be an amazing scientist and to hate Tony Stark. Zeke is the kind of supervillain who sells weapons to terrorists, stays in the shadows, and finds ways to get others to do his bidding. Whenever he does step into the spotlight, though, he's no pushover. Rather, Zeke technologically augments himself in many ways and has his own tech suit, which has been improved through trial and (sometimes grievous) error. Comics being comics, he has also occasionally aligned himself with other supervillains and, of course, Iron Man himself.

The character is technically a member of Iron Man's rogues gallery, but it's fitting that the MCU version of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) has inherited him. After all, their situations mirror each other in a fascinating way: Where Riri openly sees herself as Tony Stark's spiritual successor as an engineer but lacks the funds to match his work, Ezekiel denounces his father's very name yet, based on his collection, clearly has money to spare. Considering that "Ironheart" wants to be the MCU's answer to the legendary "Breaking Bad," this is exactly the kind of nuance the show needs.

The MCU has been introducing Young Avengers left and right in recent years, and Riri is very much in that picture. Stane might also fit in well, potentially as one of the few second-generation villains in the franchise. It will be fascinating to see where his path takes him, but judging by his comics version, his storyline is unlikely to retain all that "Live, Laugh, Love" decor for too long.

"Ironheart" is now streaming on Disney+.