The Iron Man IP is in a weird place right now. Robert Downey Jr. is back at Marvel Studios, but he’s switched Tony Stark’s nanotech armor for the metal mask and green cloak of Doctor Doom. The Armored Avenger’s legacy has been left in the hands of Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart, then, whose upcoming Disney Plus series has been sitting on the shelf for years now. And that’s not even mentioning War Machine spinoff Armor Wars, which is mired in developmental problems.
At long last, though, Marvel is all set to unleash a brand-new entry in the Iron Man franchise, which this time is heading straight to Disney Plus instead of theaters. That may be because this next iteration of the character’s brand will be a little different from what we’re used to. Let’s just say don’t expect this new Tony Stark to drunkenly pee himself in his suit or make jokes about hiding zucchinis…
Marvel has a new Iron Man series coming to Disney Plus, but Downey fans will be disappointed
You know Iron Man. You may even know Iron Lad. But get ready for… Iron Tot! Marvel and Disney have just announced an unexpected new incarnation of Tony Stark — the preschool-age protagonist of a new animated series headed for Disney Junior and Disney Plus next year.
As per Variety, Iron Man and His Awesome Friends will follow Tony Stark (Mason Blomberg) and his “world-saving besties” Riri Williams (Kapri Ladd) and Amadeus Cho (Aidyn Ahn) as they battle bad guys, with a little help from Vision (David Kaye) and Gamma (Fred Tatasciore).
“To help them in their Super Hero endeavors, they each have their own Iron Suits that allow them to fly and give them each enhanced super-strength. In addition, Iron Man has a Nano-Shield; Ironheart has a Heartbeat Bubble forcefield to protect people, and Iron Hulk has his strong Iron Boom clap and Iron Hulk Stomp,” reads the official character descriptions.
Every superhero team needs an HQ, of course, and Iron Man and his awesome friends will “work out of their beachfront base, Iron Quarters (IQ), under the supervision of their superpowered android, Vision, and their furry pup, Gamma, who has her very own Iron Pup suit and accompanies the Iron Friends on many of their adventures.”
If the title and format of this show is ringing any bells that’s because it’s very clearly inspired by the success of Disney’s Spidey and His Amazing Friends animation, which similarly takes a pint-sized Peter Parker and pairs him with Miles Morales and Spider-Gwen. Confusingly, though, Awesome Friends definitely doesn’t share continuity with Spidey because the latter series already features an adult Iron Man, as voiced by John Stamos.
Naturally, Marvel fans are getting a kick out of imagining how Toddler Tony will be brought to life.
Maybe don’t expect an adaptation of Tony’s infamous alcohol addiction storyline.
Will Jarvis the butler now be Jarvis the nanny?
Believe it or not, there are avid Spidey and His Amazing Friends fans on X who aren’t here for this errant pretender.
Although ’80s kids can agree that nothing will ever beat the GOAT — Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. We’re still waiting on Firestar to make her MCU debut.
With Downey shooting Avengers: Doomsday, Ironheart releasing, and Iron Man and His Awesome Friends hitting Disney Plus, all generations of Iron Man fans should be catered for in 2025. We love it 3000.
