Marvel Studios is reportedly looking to cast a smart, confident transgender female character in the Disney+ series Ironheart. According to POC Culture, Marvel sent out a casting call for the upcoming series for a "Black, Latina or Afro-Latina transgender" actress between 18 and 22 years old. If the studio follows through with casting a trans actor, the Ironheart actress would be the fourth trans actor to appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and third trans woman.
Ironheart stars Dominique Thorne (Judas and the Black Messiah) as Riri Williams, as well as Anthony Ramos and Lyric Ross in yet-to-be-announced roles. In the comics, the character is a super genius by five years old and enrolled in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by 15 years old. After her best friend and father are killed in a drive-by shooting, Riri wants to protect her hometown and the ones she loves, so she reverse engineers Tony Stark's Iron Man design to create her own suit of armor—the most advanced of its kind since Stark's Iron Man designs themselves!
"One of the characters that will be introduced in the upcoming Ironheart Disney+ series is going to be a Black, Latina or Afro-Latina transgender character," said POC Culture's Ron Seoul-Oh. The publication's report continued on, adding, "the character is portrayed as she/her, [who] is around 18-22 years old."
The casting call for the character also describes her as "smart" and "confident," "with a mystical bent and unique sense of humor," adding that she is "unapologetically nerdy about things that excite her…even if they might be terrifying to others." Although this casting description doesn't point to any specific character from Marvel Comics, fans are excited about the prospect of a POC trans woman joining the cast of Ironheart.
There are also rumors the show is looking to cast an older non-binary actor for a major role and Marvel and Disney are considering making Riri bisexual.
This Would Not Be the First Trans Character in the MCU
After The Walt Disney Company and CEO Bob Chapek's failure to oppose Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill, the company needs to earn back goodwill and trust with its LGBTQIA+ audiences. Even if it seems like shouldn't be remarkable to see a trans actor on-screen, it still is. Not backing out on its recent promise to have more diversity and inclusion in its content—for example, by casting a Black, Latina or Afro-Latina transgender character in Ironheart—is a first step toward Disney showing it's a true ally to the queer community.
Although it's worth celebrating more trans representation on-screen in Ironheart, casting a trans female character in the Disney+ series wouldn't be a first for Marvel, especially now the Netflix shows seem to be back into the canon with Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) appearing in the MCU. For example, trans actress Aneesh Sheth (The Walking Dead) played Gillian, a trans woman and Jessica Jones' (Krysten Ritter) assistant in Jessica Jones Season 3. Notably, Gillian's trans identity isn't a plot point.
"There's no narrative around her identity, which I think is wonderful because trans people exist in the world, and it’s not always about their [trans] narrative," Sheth told iNews.
Further, Sheth was not the first trans actor in a Marvel series: Shakina Nayfack (Difficult People) was a pawn shop clerk in Jessica Jones Season 2 and MJ Rodriguez (Pose) was in Luke Cage. Additionally, Marvel TV cast trans actor Erika Ervin to play Lady Karaba in the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 episode, "Fun & Games," directed Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), and transgender actor Zach Barack appeared in a smaller role in Spider-Man: Far From Home as one of Peter Parker's (Tom Holland) classmates.