Rainbow Crew is an ongoing interview series that celebrates the best LGBTQ+ representation on screen. Each instalment showcases talent working on both sides of the camera, including queer creatives and allies to the community. Next up, we're speaking to Regan Aliyah about her Marvel debut in Ironheart.
Despite its metallic exterior, Ironheart the show, and Ironheart herself, are deeply human. Its lead, Riri Williams, is often overcome with feelings to the point of panic or grief, while her enduring connection to her best friend Natalie is the emotional core of the story in many ways.
Yet, in the second batch of episodes, Ironheart introduces another character named Zelma Stanton who leads with her heart in a different way. Through magical means, this endlessly charming witch-in-training navigates the story with intuition and spontaneity, leaping in to help Riri by putting emotion first, no matter what dangers lie ahead.
While Zelma is a fan-favourite for readers of Doctor Strange especially, Regan Aliyah's performance as her in Ironheart guarantees she'll be a fan-favourite on screen too. Aliyah sparks and fizzes in every scene, imbuing each frame with a bonafide magic of her own in the back half of the show.
Expect bright things for Aliyah and Zelma too in the future, especially if Ironheart's post-credit scene is anything to go by. Digital Spy caught up with Aliyah to discuss the show's ending, her thoughts on the its biggest reveal, and whether or not Zelma could actually be Marvel's newest LGBTQ+ character onscreen.
Related: Marvel adds mysterious MCU movie release date – what could it be?
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What is it about Zelma as a character that really speaks to you as a person?
She loves magic so much that she's down to just try. In the comics, specifically, there's this honesty about her, even when the honesty isn't wanted. And I think there's a humour to her in the comics. Hopefully that shows on the show. She's a cool girl.
Magic really speaks to me. I think all of my favourite characters in Marvel are usually the magic users. Magic is the coolest thing you can do. So getting to play a magic user, getting to play a character that has powers at all, is such an insane feeling. And for it to be a character that I feel is more a ground-level character, I think that's really cool.
Zelma's approach to magic would be so intriguing to see in a show like Agatha All Along. She would have fit so well in that coven, right?
Say it again. Say it again! I want to be a part of it. I love Agatha. I was so happy when they made that show. I was like, is there a world where Zelma creeps over there? I would love that.
The majority of witches in Agatha All Along are queer and I picked up on some hints in Ironheart that the MCU's Zelma might be queer too. Do you think that's true or was I just reading into things too much?
Inherently, what people feel about her is how they feel about her. I believe she is. I just think she's like, too cool to not be. Girl yeah!
But I also think that there's a part of her where she's more worried about learning magic and being in that world and getting better at it and figuring out where she belongs in it, than anything else. I think that's her priority, but I don't know. I think she is.
Don't let the internet jump me [Laughs] But if I'm playing the character, there's something they're seeing that's a little queer in the character. That's why they hired me, you know?
Ironheart is also very queer through Shea Couleé playing Slug and Zoe Terakes' involvement too. With all this plus Agatha All Along's release last year, I'd love to hear your perspective on where queer representation is heading in the MCU and why it's so important to see.
I love it. I think it's so cool, especially with the current climate of the world, to be prioritising queer people, because we exist. We exist in every universe, every multiverse. We're always going to be here, whether it's a comic or real life. We exist.
Some people don't realise how important [representation] is to people. A lot of people believe everything is unnecessary, but it is necessary to a huge group of people to feel represented in so many ways, in the same way that Black women are feeling represented in Ironheart.
Representation makes you feel some type of way and makes you connect to art in ways that you never have before. So I'm really thankful that even in Ironheart that we have that. I think it's one of the most important things that you could possibly have.
And it's not just a quota thing. People think, "Oh, we're checking a box and putting it in every show," and it's like, "No, we just exist. So it naturally happens." If we're all in a coffee shop, and I walk in, the coffee shop doesn't check a box of how many customers they need. I just walked in and I was queer. Know what I mean?
What was your favourite Ironheart scene to look back on?
I purposefully, when filming, read the parts of the script that Zelma needed to know. Anything before I'm like, "That's not Zelma's business." So when Riri comes up to me and she's like, "I need help," that's the knowledge I have. I didn't go back and read the rest of that.
As somebody that's such a big fan, I got to still be a fan and watch the show and go, "Oh my God, that's what was happening? This is crazy." So now I have so many new favourite moments, because I chose to still have my fan experience.
I can say, there's a certain somebody that's at a table with Riri, and there's a moment where he's talking to her, and there's a slight flash of him in the reflection. I really want people to go back and look at that, because you see him in his true form, in the reflection, and then it just goes back to their conversation.
To me, that scene is so incredibly detailed, where I'm like, "Y'all probably missed that. Go back and watch them talk." That slight moment of showing that red and who he is, I was gagged. I was gagged. It was so good.
It's been a secret for so long that it feels weird to even say his name out loud at this point. Even in the show, there's that moment in episode four when Zelma almost goes to say "Mephisto" before she's cut off by her mother, right?
It's also so cool, because they dangled him in WandaVision every week. Mephisto confirmed? Is it Mephisto? Blah, blah, blah. We were looking like a fool commenting every day, being like, "No, he's gonna show up in the next episode. You see that bunny? That's actually gonna be him..." We were doing the most.
To then get on set and our executive producer Zoie [Nagelhout] being like, "It's confirmed, girl, it's happening." I was like, "There's no way. Like, there's no way."
A lot of fans will have been surprised to see Mephisto debut in Ironheart of all places, but I think it's really interesting to throw him in the mix as magic and tech collide in the show.
To me, it makes so much sense, because if you think about Mephisto, this devilish character, they prey on the innocent. The Peter Parker we know, right, now has lived a lot of life. Even though he's still young, he's seen and lived a lot. You have this new character, Riri, that's wide eyed and just trying to figure things out right now.
If I was Mephisto, I'd say, "Perfect. Let me help you with that." I know certain people are confused about it, but to me, that makes sense. Why wouldn't he start on this ground level and then go, "Easy, next."
You take centre stage in the post-credit scene that follows Mephisto's chat with Riri. What does that scene mean for you with so many threads being dangled?
One, I was screaming, because what do you mean I'm in the post credits scene? What are you talking about? Me? I feel like every day I was telling them, "Shut up. This is not true. Somebody's gonna come out, Ashton Kutcher or something, and they're gonna be like, "You're Punk'd!" I was just so confused.
It can go a lot of places. We pray that Zelma doesn't fall victim to a little bit of evil. Right now, all she wants to do so bad is magic. But I do think that she won't stray too far, in my head, because she has guidance somewhere from some other people.
I think a lot of comic fans will realise that even when she's talking to Riri and Riri's Mom, there's a point where she grabs this jar and she's like, "Hey, don't touch that. Once those get in your brain, they're kind of hard to get out."
That's showing that her backstory has already happened, which is she got those mind maggots stuck in her head and then she goes to Doctor Strange and he helps her get them out. So she's already meddling. She already knows this man.
If we do get a season two, or if this is gonna connect to something else in the future, I don't think homegirl is gonna stray too far without somebody reeling her back in and be like, "You don't know what you're doing right now."
While we wait for news about Ironheart season two, season three of XO, Kitty is in production right now... What does it mean to play Juliana in this show and embody that experience as a young queer person yourself?
What an incredible and rare experience to be on a show where you have these six people in the friend group, and four out of the six are queer, and all of them are people of colour. That, in itself, is just unheard of. And then you branch out some more characters, and they're also queer, and they're all people of colour...
Also, it's important that all of these characters are going through high school, and their queerness is just who they are. If a straight person is gonna like somebody, they're gonna like somebody in high school. If a gay person is gonna like someone, they're gonna like somebody in high school. So I really appreciate the fact that this show doesn't hide who they are. It just is natural. It just is who they are.
I'm really blessed to play a character on that show, to play Juliana, specifically. I think that she has this mature storyline in a family show where she's recognising her own insecurities in a relationship and not knowing how to deal with them, so she's projecting, and then she realises that, and then she apologises for that. The checks and balances as a 16 year old.
To have that, I think, is so cool. It's one of those things where I tell kids, "You may be mad at her the first watch, and then a couple watches in, you'll be like, 'Wow, wait. She might be a little smarter than we thought.'"
It's amazing to see a show as special and unique as this that attracts such a huge, dedicated fandom. It proves that queer, non-white stories are not niche, that they're as viable and popular as any other show of that ilk, if not more so.
One of the reasons I came out and I felt comfortable coming out was because I watched a TV show and I saw how it would play out on the other end.
Because a lot of times, being queer and being young, if you're not in a space that's accepted, it feels like you're in this dark tunnel, and you don't know how to get out. So you're just walking in the darkness for as long as you can, holding on for as long as you can. Watching a TV show is what made the light show up at the end, being like, "Oh, I think I could be okay on the other side."
Now that I'm in a TV show that deals with queerness and stuff… It may be stupid to one person, but to another person, that might be the light out of their tunnel. That is an important thing. Whether it is to everyone, it really is to me.
Which shows particularly resonated with you growing up as a queer person?
As a kid, it would be like, she'd go from Kim Possible or Marceline in Adventure Time, like all of these characters, these cool women, where I'd be like, "Why do I want to be them, but why do I like them? Why? What is this feeling?" So many movies, so many TV shows, where there would be these powerful women, and I would just be like, "I'm obsessed."
There were so many TV shows that made me be like, "Am I?" It ended up being the queer storyline in the show Atypical that helped me come out… Atypical was really one of the reasons I came out, because of that queer storyline in it where I was like, "Oh! Okay, I can do this."
All episodes of Ironheart are available to stream now on Disney+.
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After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
