Iron Man season 1
| Iron Man | |
|---|---|
| Season 1 | |
| File:Iron Man season 1 poster.png Promotional poster | |
| Showrunner | Jackson Greene |
| Starring |
|
| No. of episodes | 23 |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO Max |
| Original release | March 12 – August 20, 2026 |
| Season chronology | |
Iron Man is the first season of the American television series based on the Marvel Comics character Tony Stark / Iron Man, developed by Jackson Greene for HBO Max as the foundation of a new standalone live-action Marvel universe produced independently from any prior film continuity. The season premiered on March 12, 2026, and concluded on August 20, 2026, consisting of 23 episodes.
The series follows Tony Stark as he rebuilds his company, confronts government distrust, battles rival weapons manufacturers, and encounters an emerging wave of technologically enhanced criminals. Unlike previous adaptations, this version of Iron Man exists in a separate continuity with no connection to any film universe.
Robert Downey Jr. stars as Tony Stark, alongside Gwyneth Paltrow, Jacob Tremblay, Sam Rockwell, Rila Fukushima, and Lance Reddick. The season uses a traditional serialized format, balancing episodic threats with long-form storytelling.
The show was renewed for a second season in August 2026.
Premise
Following a catastrophic weapons demonstration that nearly kills him, Tony Stark returns home determined to reinvent both himself and Stark Industries. As he secretly constructs advanced armor to stop technological threats that his company once helped create, Tony faces mounting pressure from the U.S. government, a rising paramilitary competitor led by Justin Hammer, and a mysterious assassin targeting Stark executives.
While juggling his new double life as Iron Man, Tony must navigate corporate sabotage, espionage, and his own worsening health crisis caused by the arc reactor in his chest.
Cast and characters
Main cast
- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man
- Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts
- Jacob Tremblay as Nathaniel "Nate" Stark, Tony’s teenage nephew
- Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer
- Rila Fukushima as Akira Mori, Stark Industries’ cyber-security chief
- Lance Reddick as Director Marcus Hall, head of the Strategic Threat Bureau (STB)
Recurring cast
- Giancarlo Esposito as Dr. Conrad Mallus
- Manny Jacinto as Eric Doyle, STB field agent
- Pom Klementieff as Ghost (season antagonist)
- Edi Gathegi as Obsidian, Hammer’s augmented enforcer
- Ava Russo as Clara Dawson, an investigative journalist
Guest cast
- Ben Kingsley as Trevor Slattery
- Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Maxwell Grant
- Ariana Greenblatt as Lia Morgan
- Don Cheadle as Colonel Rhodes (pilot only)
Episodes
| No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | Prod. code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "A New Arc" | Jackson Greene | Jackson Greene | March 12, 2026 | IM01 |
| Ex-military engineer Marcus Thane ambushes a covert convoy in the Gobi Desert and steals the ARC-LINK neural core, an abandoned Stark Industries prototype meant for direct brain–armor interfacing. Tony Stark, now refining early iterations of the Mark I-X exosuit, learns that the tech used in the attack matches his scrapped “Mark Zero” schematics and begins investigating who resurrected the project. Thane publicly resurfaces in Midvale, testing an upgraded, weaponized version of the ARC-LINK suit and overpowering Stark in their first encounter, forcing Tony to retreat as federal agents swarm the scene. Pepper Potts and James Rhodes confront Stark about the resurfacing tech, prompting Tony to commit to building a stronger, fully realized armor before Thane escalates further. Meanwhile, Thane delivers the stolen ARC-LINK to an underground bunker, where an unidentified partner overseeing a larger operation welcomes him to “Phase Two,” signaling the beginning of a new engineered arms race built from Stark’s own abandoned ideas. | ||||||
| 2 | 2 | "Ghost in the Circuit" | Mira Silverleaf | Celeste Hart | March 19, 2026 | IM02 |
| After a masked intruder infiltrates Stark Industries’ data core, wipes part of JARVIS’s memory, and leaves a warning that Tony “left a door open,” Tony begins hunting a new threat unrelated to Thane and learns from an underground tech broker that a mysterious data thief known as the Circuit Ghost has been targeting advanced neural systems across the globe. When the Ghost returns to breach a secure vault, Tony attempts to trap them but is overwhelmed by phase-shifted technology built from his own abandoned ARC-LINK prototypes, forcing him to confront the fact that someone is weaponizing ideas he buried years ago. Teaming up with Rhodey and Pepper, Tony realizes the Ghost’s tech perfectly complements Thane’s stolen ARC-LINK core, proving two separate enemies are racing toward the same catastrophic breakthrough, and although Tony briefly destabilizes the Ghost’s cloaking long enough to see they’re a young woman, she escapes before he can identify her. Meanwhile, the Ghost—secretly Kira, a brilliant engineer believed dead—reports to an unknown handler who insists Stark must be stopped before he repeats the mistakes of his past, while Thane prepares his enhanced suit for the next phase of his own escalating plan. | ||||||
| 3 | 3 | "Weapons of Tomorrow" | Finnian Hawke | Nathan Bright | March 26, 2026 | IM03 |
| After a break-in at Hammer Industries exposes that a masked saboteur known as the Ghost stole the unstable Razorback rail-gauntlet, Tony investigates and concludes the thief is assembling a toolkit specifically designed to bypass his own neural vault protections, forcing him, Pepper, and Rhodey to confront the possibility that someone is weaponizing every dangerous idea Tony buried years earlier. Kira, revealed to be the Ghost and barely held together by malfunctioning phase-tech, races to finish mapping the vault while her failing body hints at a catastrophic price for her abilities, and Tony tracks her trail into the old Midtown power tunnels, where he discovers she’s not stealing for profit but trying to secure a truth tied to his scrapped Mark Zero work. Their confrontation is interrupted when Thane violently intervenes to silence her, using an overclocked ARC-LINK-powered suit that nearly kills them both before Tony drives him off and rescues Kira, learning she’s been manipulated by a hidden partner orchestrating an arms race built from Stark’s discarded inventions. As Kira collapses from phase decay and warns that “Phase Three” is coming, an unidentified figure in a remote bunker studies surveillance footage of Tony carrying her to safety, declaring that once Thane retrieves the final component, Stark’s entire legacy will be reduced to ash. | ||||||
| 4 | 4 | "Power Surge" | Orion Kestrel | Georgiana Valentine | April 2, 2026 | IM04 |
| 5 | 5 | "The Reactor Job" | Dorian Ashwood | Oliver Greenwood | April 9, 2026 | IM05 |
| 6 | 6 | "Silent Running" | Jasper Nightingale | Clara Redwood | April 16, 2026 | IM06 |
| 7 | 7 | "Red Sky Directive" | Kael Mirewood | Benjamin Knowles | April 23, 2026 | IM07 |
| 8 | 8 | "Firewall" | Sara Case | Ethan Morland | April 30, 2026 | IM08 |
| 9 | 9 | "Hammer Industries" | Freddie Goodwin | Jackson Greene | May 7, 2026 | IM09 |
| 10 | 10 | "Echo Protocol" | Orion Kestrel | Celeste Hart | May 14, 2026 | IM10 |
| 11 | 11 | "Breach" | Finnian Hawke | Georgiana Valentine | May 21, 2026 | IM11 |
| 12 | 12 | "Shrapnel" | Mira Silverleaf | Nathan Bright | May 28, 2026 | IM12 |
| 13 | 13 | "Unmasked" | Celeste Starfall | Oliver Greenwood | June 4, 2026 | IM13 |
| 14 | 14 | "Crosslines" | Jasper Nightingale | Clara Redwood | June 11, 2026 | IM14 |
| 15 | 15 | "Legacy Run" | Damon Rourke | Sara Case | June 18, 2026 | IM15 |
| 16 | 16 | "Core Collapse" | Dorian Ashwood | Benjamin Knowles | June 25, 2026 | IM16 |
| 17 | 17 | "Ghost Protocol" | Sara Case | Ethan Morland | July 2, 2026 | IM17 |
| 18 | 18 | "Armorbreaker" | Orion Kestrel | Clara Redwood | July 9, 2026 | IM18 |
| 19 | 19 | "Fall of Hammer, Part 1" | Freddie Goodwin | Jackson Greene | July 16, 2026 | IM19 |
| 20 | 20 | "Fall of Hammer, Part 2" | Freddie Goodwin | Jackson Greene | July 23, 2026 | IM20 |
| 21 | 21 | "Iron Legacy" | Finnian Hawke | Georgiana Valentine | July 30, 2026 | IM21 |
| 22 | 22 | "The Cost of Genius" | Mira Silverleaf | Celeste Hart | August 6, 2026 | IM22 |
| 23 | 23 | "A Future Forged" | Jackson Greene | Jackson Greene | August 20, 2026 | IM23 |
Production
Development
HBO Max ordered Iron Man in early 2025 as the flagship series of a new, standalone live-action Marvel television universe with no narrative connection to any previous films. Jackson Greene served as showrunner and executive producer.
Writing
The writers’ room structured the season in a classic 2010s network-style serialized format. The main story arc centers on Tony’s rebuilding of Stark Industries, Justin Hammer’s escalating paramilitary ambitions, and the emergence of the villain Ghost.
Filming
Production took place from July 2025 to March 2026 in Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Tokyo.
Release
The season premiered on March 12, 2026, and concluded on August 20, 2026.