The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Lyric Ross, best known for her role in NBC's This Is Us, is set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Ironhart. While specific character details have yet to be revealed, the trade notes that the actress is playing Riri Williams' best friend.
Dominique Thorne plays Williams, "a genius inventor who creates the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man."
Looking at the comic books, we have to assume Ross has been cast as Natalie Washington. They met as children and Natalie took an immediate interest in Riri's engineering work. A few years later, [SPOILER ALERT] tragedy struck when both girls were caught in the line of fire of an unrelated drive-by and Natalie was killed. However, there's nothing to say the MCU will follow the same path.
The report also mentions that In The Heights star Anthony Ramos is indeed set to play Ironheart's villain. If rumours about him being Obidiah Stane's son are correct, then we can probably expect him to suit up in a bid to take out this world's new "Iron Man."
Ironheart will be introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever later this year, but very little has been revealed about plans for this Disney+ series. Snowpiercer's Chinaka Hodge has been set as Head Writer, though, and cameras are scheduled to begin rolling this June in Atlanta, Georgia.
With that in mind, we expect Ironheart to debut sometime in 2024.