What’s Under the Hood of Disney+’s New Marvel Series?

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for the Ironheart finale.When you finish the finale of Ironheart, don’t leave just yet, as the latest MCU series does indeed feature an end-credits scene. That’s not entirely surprising given that the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spin-off has been on the back burner for quite a while at Marvel Studios. Still, the show’s end-credits sequence continues to build up some exciting developments for this new batch of characters, with one in particular getting their chance to shine.

Bar the shocking and horrifying introduction of Mephisto (Sacha Baron Cohen), three characters are at the center of Ironheart‘s grand finale. The first, unsurprisingly enough, is Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) – the young genius and iron anti-hero who’s torn between working with nefarious forces and pursuing her dreams of building a better legacy. The second is The Hood, AKA Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos) – a young aspiring criminal kingpin whose body is slowly being deformed by the demonic cloak given to him by Mephisto. Thirdly, there’s Ezekiel Stane (Alden Ehrenreich) – Obadiah Stane’s (Jeff Bridges) son, who first took The Hood up on his offer of cybernetic powers to get revenge on Riri, only to then be under the criminal’s control. Riri Williams succeeds in defeating both of them, but one of the villains’ fates is revealed after the credits roll.

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In the show’s final battle, Riri Williams proves once and for all that she’s the better fighter than The Hood, demonic powers or not. Parker certainly puts up a fight, with his cloak having such influence on him that he has become a vengeful monster, which makes his hatred for Riri after leaving his best friend to die even more intense. In spite of this, Riri still comes out on top in the end and is able to separate Parker from his hood, officially stripping him of his powers (literally).

The fates of Riri and Parker’s former pawn Ezekiel are left up in the air, with the former making a shocking and reluctant deal with Mephisto and Ezekiel being left to his own devices after being cut to size by Riri. However, the end-credits sequence does give a little bit of insight into what’s next for Parker. Losing his beloved and titular hood has effectively given the once-powerful villain withdrawal symptoms, and it’s evident that he will do anything to get even a taste of that magical power back in his possession.

Blended image showing a folder with the Iron Man helmet and the Captain America shield beside it.

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Somehow, someway, a disheveled and beaten-down Parker Robbins finds out about Madeline (Cree Summer) and Zelma Stanton (Regan Aliyah) – the two magic experts who helped Riri figure out how to defeat The Hood (as well as incorrectly suggesting that Doctor Strange‘s Dormammu was involved rather than Mephisto). When Parker confronts Zelma, he makes it abundantly clear that the innocent-looking store she runs is really a front for all sorts of magical artifacts and knowledge. Zelma may not have ever met Parker face-to-face, but she is immediately suspicious, though it isn’t explicitly clear if she allows Parker to see her magical wares or if she’ll kick Parker to the curb.

Will The Hood Return in a Future MCU Project?

While this certainly may not necessarily apply to Ironheart‘s end-credits sequence, Marvel’s previous end-credits stingers have been widely criticized for setting up plot threads that have not yet been resolved. Yes, maybe they’re all part of a rising master plan, but the stingers set up in the likes of Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love & Thunder, and more have yet to be further explored. That trend doesn’t bode well for Ironheart, but it’s honestly anyone’s guess if and when The Hood will return to the MCU.

That said, never say never. Just recently, Captain America: Brave New World finally acknowledged plot threads left behind by The Incredible Hulk over a decade after the MCU’s second-ever film was released. While Marvel has certainly been pumping the brakes on its Disney+ offerings, with the upcoming Vision Quest and Wonder Man representing a mere fraction of the output Marvel was keeping up with during Disney+’s early days, it’ll be interesting to see if the character has a future in TV or even film. Only time will tell, but if those rumors of a Midnight Suns adaptation are true, a supernatural figure like The Hood would be a pretty good fit for a project like that.

All episodes of Ironheart are streaming now on Disney+.