Ironheart

Back this summer with a new Marvel television series is Riri Williams, aka Ironheart (Dominique Thorne), whom we met in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She’s the teen genius who built an Iron Man suit in her MIT dorm room. The trailer’s soundtrack sports high energy grooves from pop star Doechii.

The trailer begins with minimalist sound. We hear Chicago traffic as Riri arrives at an empty pizzeria. She makes her way to a service elevator and a riser at 0:15 cues in some sparse and suspenseful electronic music when the elevator gets stuck. Now we are hearing layers of synth bass and kick drum. When Riri taps the elevator buttons at 0:20, her button pressing is in time with the music, likewise her fist slamming on the elevator button panel at 0:22. Another riser leads up to the elevator button panel falling off the wall at 0:22, the sound heightening the impact of the visuals.

From 0:24-0:45 Riri gets instructions from a voice on the intercom, and the music is understated, staying out of the way of the dialogue. At 0:45 Riri smashes a glass case in the elevator, with the smash landing on the downbeat as a new drum machine groove enters. From 0:45-1:00 Riri fights her way out of the elevator, as layers of sound design evoke ticking clocks (a common trailer music device we’ve analyzed in past blogs).

Riri escapes from the elevator and at 1:04 we cut to silence as Riri meets a Marvel villain named Hood (Anthony Ramos). With the first half of the trailer now complete, having shown us most of what looks like an opening episode action scene, the rest of the trailer is made up of an exciting montage introducing us to more characters and adventures.

The second half, starting from 1:09, is cut to a trailerized remix of Doechii’s 2022 track “Crazy,” clearly aiming at a demographic familiar with the artist’s work.

From 1:12-1:24 the montage shows Riri in the lab at MIT, her impressive talent winning no respect from her professors, as Doechii raps “Hop out, First Lady…”. There’s a pause in Doechii’s lyrics but the infectious groove from “Crazy” continues as we see a flashback to Wakanda Forever, with Riri and Shuri working together in the lab (1:28).

Another riser leads us to a cut to silence at 1:36, as we hear Riri tell Hood she plans to build something iconic. The remainder of the trailer mostly uses the drum groove from “Crazy” to drive forward. As the trailer starts to hint at the danger Hood brings to the story, at 2:09, an orchestral ascending F Phrygian bassline adds some menace. For a big action finish, we have some trailer triplets at 2:19, leading to Ironheart flipping a truck in a head-on collision.

It’s a strong trailer, with detailed rhythmic editing, and the propulsive drive of a hit song from a rising hip hop star. The combination of aggression and ambition in the lyrics and performance of “Crazy” is a great fit for Ironheart’s character, accentuating the intensity of the action in this story.

The first three episodes of Ironheart launch on Disney+ on June 24.

— Jack Hui Litster