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When Marvel’s WandaVision first started airing in 2021, the name “Mephisto” was unavoidable. Every week, fans theorized the demonic Marvel villain would be revealed as the mastermind behind all of Wanda’s (Elizabeth Olsen) suffering. However, Mephisto truthers were left cold when Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) turned out to be the show’s one and only big bad.
As Marvel’s slate of Disney+ shows expanded, the Mephisto fervor died down. Perhaps he really just wasn’t coming to the MCU after all.
What’s Mephisto doing in Ironheart?
In episode 6 of Ironheart, viewers learn that Parker made a bargain with Mephisto in order to get his heart’s desire: become filthy rich. Later in the episode, Riri makes a similar deal with Mephisto, ultimately getting her best friend Natalie (Lyric Ross) back. The stage is set for a showdown with the demon, because all magic has a cost.
Is Mephisto’s arrival too late to be exciting?
On paper, the Mephisto reveal is an exciting one for MCU fans who have been begging for it since WandaVision. However, with the supervillain’s arrival coming in 2025, it feels like the wind has been taken out of the SS Mephisto’s sails. The delayed release of Ironheart makes the Mephisto reveal seem like an artifact of an earlier era of Marvel Studios TV, when Marvel was experimenting with a varied slate of shows.
In the end, the Mephisto reveal in Ironheart may not live up to the hype after so many years of anticipation.
Ironheart Season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.
