Inside that surprise ‘Ironheart' cameo — and how it could net the Marvel show an Emmy nod (spoilers)

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Ironheart.
Ironheart just learned a lesson that Batman mastered decades ago: Never dance with the devil in the pale moonlight.
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The season finale of Marvel's latest Disney+ series introduced Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) to a man of wealth and taste, played by a surprise guest star who has been around for a long, long year with many different looks and faces.
Care to guess his name? It's Sacha Baron Cohen and he's the physical incarnation of a metaphysical being that Marvel fans have been expecting to meet for years — the demon Mephisto. Besides being a big name get, Cohen's devilish cameo is the natural endpoint for Ironheart's drift towards more supernatural realms in its final batch of episodes.
Here's what the Mephisto reveal means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe... and Ironheart's 2026 Emmy hopes.
Cocreated by Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and John Buscema, Mephisto first apparated into Marvel continuity in 1968 and has been bedeviling major and minor heroes ever since. While he's not explicitly Satan, it's only natural that you'd confuse one age-old being with the other given their taste for the color red and shared penchant for tempting the virtuous to make less-than-virtuous choices. Mephisto also has the power to alter reality, which comes in handy whenever Marvel writers need to undo a long-standing piece of continuity like, say, Peter Parker marrying Mary Jane Watson.
To date, Mephisto's onscreen appearances have been limited to Nicolas Cage's two Ghost Rider movies, neither of which takes place in mainline MCU continuity. (Peter Fonda played the role in the 2007 original, while Ciarán Hinds took over for the 2011 sequel, Spirit of Vengeance.) His MCU arrival has been anticipated for some time, though, as far back as WandaVision. The flames of their anticipation were further stoked by a pointed namedrop in the third episode of Marvel's current Emmy hopeful, Agatha All Along.
In fact, some speculated that Agatha costar Aubrey Plaza might be Mephisto's child or Mephisto herself. That guess didn't pan out, but they were right about the role being played by someone with serious comic chops.
Like his comic book counterpart, Baron Cohen's Mephisto has the power to offer heroes or heroes-to-be their greatest desire... provided that they're willing to pay a price. That's what happened to Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), who had his own encounter with the demon where he confessed to wanting to be fabulously wealthy. Mephisto gave him his wish in the form of a hooded cloak — the same cloak he wears as the Hood, the leader of the gang that recruited Riri in the first half of the season. But as we've seen, that cloak is also now a part of him and going without it leads to searing pain and glowing-red scars.
Tempting Riri requires a different approach as she's not interested in amassing power. But she does want to correct the past, specifically the untimely death of her childhood best friend, Natalie (Lyric Ross), who is currently enjoying an AI-enabled afterlife as the hologram ghost powering Riri's Ironheart armor. Mephisto's offer to Riri? Make Natalie's resurrection real. In Ironheart's final scene, we see Riri embrace a flesh-and-blood Natalie and—just like Parker—Riri's skin has a noticeably red hue.
Now that Mephisto has formally entered the chat, don't be surprised if he keeps popping up as the MCU approaches a significant turning point. Speculation is already rampant that he'll have a part to play in Tom Holland's next Spider-Man outing, Brand New Day, not to mention the one-two punch of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which are expected to have continuity-altering consequences. And if either Agatha All Along or Ironheart return for a second season — though that seems unlikely — he won't just be namedropped going forward.
"I thought I understood the magnitude of it," Ironeheart executive producer Chinaka Hodge told TVLine about being the one to finally manifest Mephisto. "It wasn't until these last few days where I really understood what it actually means as a run-on effect in the MCU."
Baron Cohen's demonically fun one-shot appearance could handily vault him into Guest Actor contention for the 2026 Emmys. It would be his first nomination in that category, and his first-ever Emmy nod for acting. Cohen's previous Emmy recognition has come for writing and "best in show" categories for Da Ali G Show and Who Is America?
The Borat and Bruno star would be in Marvel-ous Guest Actor company. Don Cheadle was previously nominated in that category for his cameo as James Rhodes, aka War Machine, in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Speaking with Variety, Ironeheart EPs Zoie Nagelhout and Ryan Coogler revealed how Baron Cohen landed the coveted part, crediting director Angela Barnes with the casting suggestion. "She pitched it, and we couldn't unsee it," Nagelhout remembered. 'And we're just so lucky he said, 'Yes," because at that point, I don't think we could've gotten out of our heads that he was Mephisto."
"I just absolutely love that we're ... meeting him through this stressed-out, young Black genius," Coogler added. "It wasn't gonna be in Loki. That's the trickster; that's how he works. That's where he's gonna be: in a pizza shop in Chicago, like, where you would absolutely never expect him."
Meanwhile in her own interview with Variety, Hodge suggested that Mephisto's shape-shifting abilities could give other actors a shot at the part — and a Guest Star statue. "I would love to see a version where Sacha does Mephisto a couple of iterations, and then maybe Meryl Streep is in the role in the future," she teased. "You never know where Mephisto can be hiding."
Only Mephistos in the building? That sounds like the perfect multiverse crossover.
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