Ironheart Boss Explains That Fight Set at a White Castle, ‘One of the Truest Midwest Things You Could Do!’

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The following contains spoilers from Episode 5 of Marvel Television’s Ironheart, now streaming on Disney+.

Ironheart head writer Chinaka Hodge simply could not tell a story set in Chicago without having her hero pay a visit to the home of square, steamed, onion-infused sliders.

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In Episode 5 of the recently wrapped Marvel Television series, Riri Williams (played by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s Dominique Thorne) and local sorceress Zelma Stanton (scene stealer Regan Aliyah) meet up at a White Castle — a temporary franchise, mind you, built for the show in Sweet Auburn, Ga. — to discuss the magical source of Parker Robbins aka The Hood’s powers.

But since Riri was just caught stealing a snippet of The Hood’s eponymous cloak to analyze, the Blood Sibs (Wentworth‘s Zoe Terakes andSprung‘s Shakira Barrera) are dispatched to the fast foodery to teach their fellow thief a painful, possibly deadly lesson.

Riri quickly sends Zelma away, and a restaurant-wide brawl ensues. Suit-less, Riri unleashes a fryer basket of fries to send one Blood careening across the floor, and employs a fire extinguisher and a heavy food container to clobber the other.

Alas, no sooner does Riri trap the siblings inside a protective, hi-tech bubble, she then must square off against an arriving Clown (Birdgirl‘s Sonia Denis), using a makeshift missile launcher to beat the explosives expert at her own game.

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Once Riri flees outside, she is scooped up by N.A.T.A.L.I.E. (Lyric Ross), the AI piloting her suit, just in time to face off against a super-bionic Zeke Stane (Solo: A Star Wars Story‘sAlden Ehrenreich) — wrecking the White Castle sign out front along the way.

Given that she delivered one of White Castle’s niftiest on-camera showcases since the days of Harold and Kumar, TVLine had to ask Ironheart EP Chinaka Hodge if the fast food chain holds special meaning to her.

“It was my idea! I take credit for it,” she was quick to note during a Zoom with TVLine, while fellow Ironheart EP Ryan Coogler chuckled heartily next to her.

“My mom is from Illinois…,” Hodge went on to explain, “and growing up, she would talk about — ooh, how do this in a deft way for our partners at White Castle? — how rare it was to have the delight of a slider. But being a California kid, I never had one.”

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That situation changed at a family reunion in the Midwest, where “my cousin got me a big ol’ box of sliders and I ate as much as Riri ate,” Hodge recalled.

Indeed, Riri was in the midst of veritably inhaling sliders, crinkle cut fries and loads of information about the demonic Dormammu when her binge got crashed by the Bloods.

“My partner has a ‘sad food,’ and it’s Popeye’s [chicken],” Hodge shared. “I don’t think White Castle is a ‘sad food’ because you can’t stay sad when you eat it, apparently. But Riri, she eats some of her emotions, and I think emotionally eating White Castle is one of the truest Midwest things you could do.”

Want scoop on any Marvel TV show? Shoot an email to [email protected], and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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