Ironheart reached its conclusion this week, and it has been fair to say it has had something of a rocky road, with many fans not seeming to take to the show at all. Cue all the usual accusations when a poorly received product is pushed. Basically, it is not them, it is you.
Now, the online commentariat has noticed something curious. Rotten Tomatoes has been accused of deleting numerous negative Ironheart reviews.
One of the first to highlight this was DramaAlert on X, who shared two screenshots. The first showed the audience score (now known as the Popcornmeter) as an abysmal 32%. That score then mysteriously shot up to 71%.
Rotten Tomatoes has been accused of involvement in review manipulation before. In a 2023 report, Vulture’s Lane Brown and Luke Winkie alleged that PR firm Bunker 15 paid Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics to boost reviews of certain films. The report said:
“Bunker 15 pays them $50 or more for each review.”
Allegations were also made that the PR firm lobbied critics for positive reviews. There was also the Captain Marvel controversy, where the platform claimed to have discovered a bug in their system that led to over 50,000 negative reviews for Captain Marvel being wiped.
Compare Rotten Tomatoes to IMDb, where Ironheart sits at a terrible 4.0 out of 10.
Ironheart Finale – **Minor Spoilers**
Meanwhile, the series concluded with most talk centering on Sasha Barron Cohen’s appearance as Mephisto after years of speculation. He was first linked with an MCU appearance years ago, and the long delays around Ironheart may have dragged this out even further.
For an interview with Variety, lead actress Dominique Thorne says she was not told of his true identity until deep into shooting:
“I learned in the midst of our shooting. So, by the time they gave me the correct name in the script, it was like ‘Whoa, the Reddit guy! The guy from all the rumors. He’s in this show? OK, y’all are serious!’
The true Marvel fans know that Marvel always has a plan. So, to know that they’ve chosen to introduce him here with Riri Williams, with Parker Robbins, it’s strategic and it has a place in the larger storytelling and in the larger twists and turns that this phase will continue to unveil. And it is just a joy to get a seat on that ride.”
On screen, the character is mostly seen as Cohen, but at one point his true appearance is glimpsed in the reflection from a spoon.
The nature of the introduction has been labelled as important, like Jonathan Majors as He Who Remains in Loki, as an introduction to Kang. This was before his legal issues meant Majors was dumped from the MCU.
As the series ended with Riri making a deal with Mephisto, and with Mephisto being quite an important villain in Marvel lore, it seems that there is a plan for these characters, to continue in some form, just likely not in another season of Ironheart.
