Note: This story contains spoilers for episode 6 of Marvel’s “Ironheart.”
It’s been years of conspiracy theories and grasping for possible clues, but Mephisto has finally entered the MCU, live and in person—as a demon? He appeared at the end of “Heart,” and apparently, not even series star Dominique Thorne knew it would be him until she arrived to begin filming on location.
“That’s when I knew, ‘Oh! Okay, great,'” she told TheWrap with a laugh. “Even the names were fake. I mean, Marvel, hats off to them. They’re so committed to the lore and the secrecy that even us within the cast weren’t sure who it would actually be.”
Throughout the first season — it’s still unclear whether it will be the only season at this point — of the series, now streaming on Disney+, the running theory was that Parker Robbins received his magical hood from Dormammu, a villain Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) apparently cared for in his first solo film.
Still, Dormammu is a seriously dark being, so Zelma (Regan Aliyah) is quite confident she has the power to do this and promptly informs Riri (Thorne). But when Riri comes face to face with the man, he laughs at the fact that she believes he is Dormammu.
No, he’s Mephisto, the villain fans began hoping to see when Wandavision released in 2021. Reports floated around that time that Sacha Baron Cohen had won the role, but it was never officially confirmed.
“The name in the script kept changing,” Thorne revealed. “And so it wasn’t until we shot the final scene, I’m sitting face to face with Sacha Cohen’s Baron, where I’m like, ‘Oh, he said it. It’s Mephisto, here we go. That’s who he is.'”
You can watch part of TheWrap’s interview with Thorne in the video above.
Obviously, the “Ironheart” team knew how long Mephisto’s name had been whispered, and according to Thorne, they kept that in mind when discussing how to set the tone for the actual reveal.
“It was just, ‘This is something the fans have been waiting for a long, long time for, and this is how they get it,'” she explained of the discussions about how to do it, tonally.
“Also, peeling back the curtain to understand, ‘Oh, my God, is this who Parker Robbins has been talking to this whole time? Is this what the hood is connected to? Is this this guy?’ Finally getting a lot of those answers, just in our own story, much more so for the MCU in general.
The problem is that Riri Williams also seems to immediately make a deal with Mephisto, selling her soul to get her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) back. As the episode’s final moments draw to a close, we see Riri now displaying the visceral magical veins that Parker once had all over her back.
So what does this mean for Ironheart? Has she officially turned to the dark side?
“I don’t know,” Thorne joked. “We might need to keep an eye on her, that’s all I can say for now.”
That said, Thorne also admitted that while the actor in her would love to go all-in on playing a villain, the actress also knows how important Ironheart’s character is as a whole and what his story means.
“I think the version of me that’s also aware of how much she means as a hero to so many little girls out there is really wanting to fight for that morality, which she—it seems like she really wants to lean into,” Thorne said. “But I really think there’s something there. I think there’s something unique and cool about the authenticity of that crossroads.”
“I mean, yes, I know what the right thing to do is, but this is my best friend,” she continued. “I can’t get my dad back. I can’t get my stepdad back, but my best friend? Now? Especially as a young person going through this particular transition from, you know, young teenager to adulthood, it’s such a tender moment to have lost someone so close to you. It’s like losing a part of yourself, really.”
So, what does Riri Williams’ future really hold? Let’s just wait and see what happens next.
“Ironheart” is now streaming on Disney+.
