Powerful new MCU character to make their debut earlier than anticipated due to a Disney Plus scheduling snafu

2025 could well turn out to be a banner year for the MCU, as — after the relatively barren output of the past 12 months — Marvel Studios is set to offer an enormous range of theatrical and streaming content for fans to hook straight into their veins. All told, there are three films and six — count ’em, six — TV series on their way next year. Many of these will introduce exciting new characters into the franchise… Although one of them we’re about to meet earlier than expected.

Of all the upcoming Disney Plus shows, Ironheart is perhaps the one that’s had it the hardest. Principal production on the show, which acts as both a sequel to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and an extension of the Iron Man legacy, concluded way back in November 2022… After which, Marvel sat on it and refused to release it. Following an extensive two-month period of reshoots earlier in 2024, Ironheart is finally on its way. But its unexpected delay has caused a curious multiversal wrinkle to occur in the upcoming third (and final) season of What If…?.

A supernatural villain supposed to make his debut in Ironheart will instead arrive in What If…?

Ahead of the season’s imminent premiere, Marvel has at last shown its cards with What If…? season 3, as detailed synopses have been released for all eight episodes of the animated anthology show’s last run (and, yes, we’re still bitter about that). The synopses promise some wild premises — a whole episode about Howard the Duck and Darcy Lewis being a married couple? What is Kevin Feige smoking? — but the most notable has to be the Wild West-themed sixth episode.

Titled “What If… 1872?”, episode 3 promises to be the rootin’, tootin-est installment of What If…? yet. More than that, though, the synopsis confirms it will feature a demonic villain who wasn’t supposed to enter the MCU until Ironheart. And, no, I know what you’re thinking — it’s not Mephisto. Here’s how the synopsis goes:

“In a universe where the heroes of the MCU live in the Old West, Shang-Chi and his pistol-packing partner, Kate Bishop, traverse the frontier, saving the innocent from the evils of The Hood.”

Real name Parker Robbins, The Hood was once a small-time crook until he stole a demon’s cloak and gained fearsome supernatural powers. He’s set to be the main villain of Ironheart (which may also include Sacha Baron-Cohen as Mephisto), as played by In the Heights‘ Anthony Ramos.

What makes his What If…? appearance such a big deal is that the show is known to have been forbidden from playing with characters unless they have already shown up in the MCU. That’s why it’s taken until now for heroes such as Shang-Chi and Kate Bishop to appear. Due to its animated nature, the scripts for each season of What If…? are written way in advance, so it seems Marvel was once 100% confident Ironheart would release prior to season 3, making The Hood’s cameo in episode 6 a natural follow-up.

What they likely didn’t reckon with was the early cut of the series earning such a negative reception from execs and then the strikes of 2023 causing a delay to the reshoots. It’s unclear if Ramos will reprise (or prelude?) his role as Robbins in What If…? or if it’ll be a soundalike, but either way it seems we’ll get an unexpected early taste of what could be one of the MCU’s most dangerous supernatural supervillains.