For years, Marvel fans have been waiting for a devil. Ever since WandaVision dropped its first hexagonal Easter egg and fans lost their collective minds at what it could mean, we’ve all been marching to a faint drum beat spelling out Mephisto. Even without a shred of concrete evidence, Mephisto became the MCU’s most memed character, haunting Reddit threads and YouTube theory videos. It felt like Marvel leaned in hard, fuelling the fire with sly winks and knowing fake-outs, before eventually name-dropping the Marvel devil in Agatha All Along outright. And now with Ironheart, the hints have gone from clever misdirection to full-blown foreshadowing.
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Back when Agatha came out, showrunner Jac Schaeffer confessed that direction had come down from on-high to include Mephisto’s name-drop. “It was a conversation with [Agatha] executive producer Mary Livanos, [Marvel’s head of streaming] Brad [Winderbaum] and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige], but it is a mention that is larger than me and this show.” And it’s beginning to look a lot like Ironheart might be part of that bigger plot. In the first three episodes of Ironheart, Marvel might as well have lit the summoning circle in blood. Anthony Ramos’ Parker Robbins, aka The Hood, is introduced as a street-level villain with supernatural firepower – but it’s the source of that power, and what it’s costing him that points squarely at the devil in the details.
How Ironheart Sets Up Mephisto… Finally
The most telling moments come in Ironheart episode 2: first there’s a heavily loaded scene where Riri Williams stands in front of a tattered wall in her Chicago neighborhood, plastered with overlapping posters for Faust. It’s not exactly subtle if you know that Faust is the legendary German play – written by Goethe – about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure. It’s the definitive tale of a Faustian bargain, referenced in a show about Riri Williams willingly compromising her morality to get what she covets most.
But going beyond that thematic nod, there’s something even more concrete thanks to Parker Robbins himself. The Hood isn’t just playing dress up in a magical hood he stole (as he did in the comics): his body is falling apart, seemingly poisoned by dark magic, and coupled with audio hallucinations, including one that pointedly says “What is it that you most desire?” Classic Mephisto, whose modus operandi in the comics is preying on desperation, offering power in exchange for corruption, and binding people with infernal contracts. Parker even tells his cousin John that the hood’s painful corruption of his body is “the price I’ve got to pay for what he did to me.” It’s a loaded line that might as well have Mephisto’s laughter behind it.
It’s not an outright confirmation that Mephisto is here, even after years of speculation that he IS in this show somehow, but The Hood is shaping up to be the perfect vessel. He is a man very obviously seduced by power, and spookily capable of facilitating everything he wants. And it’s not like Marvel hasn’t been preparing us for this. Even though WandaVision’s “Agnes is Agatha” reveal killed that theory, the devil’s silhouette has been lurking just off-screen. And after Agatha All Along made his name canon and teased those plans, Ironheart is laying the groundwork for his first true manifestation.
If Mephisto comes, the power hierarchy of the MCU rogues gallery will be rewritten once again. Mephisto is one of Marvel’s most powerful Hell-Lords, who can shape-shift, is immortal, has a healing factor, and can alter time and reality. He is, in short, a big deal, and has faced off multiple times against Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and Silver Surfer most prominently, but among many others. We’ve already seen Death and countless gods come to the MCU, and now might finally be the time for a devil.
Ironheart‘s first 3 episodes are streaming on Disney+ now. For more spoiler analysis and discussion of Ironheart, click here.
