Shea Couleé confirms Marvel’s Ironheart character’s ‘drag queen’ past with official first look
Shea Couleé appeares to have been disowned by her drag daughters after all three dropped her surname (Getty)
Shea Couleé appeares to have been disowned by her drag daughters after all three dropped her surname (Getty)
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 5 winner Shea Couleé has finally spilled some tea on her mystery character Slug in Marvel’s upcoming series, Ironheart, along with a first look at the diva in action.
Set to follow ingenue Dominique Thorne after her debut appearance as young genius Riri Williams in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ironheart is one week away from release.
The six-part series will see Riri make her own Iron Man-inspired suit of armour, all while dealing with the mysterious Hood (Anthony Ramos), with whom she seemed to strike somewhat of an uneasy alliance in the first full length trailer.
She’s not alone, though; the Marvel Studios X account has dropped a thirty second teaser captioned, “High stakes. High tech. All heart.” The clip teases Riri’s journey – but in one brief glimpse, we see Shea Couleé’s Slug gagging over something alongside the MCU’s first out trans actor, Zoe Terakes.
High stakes. High tech. All heart.
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) June 14, 2025
Meet Riri Williams in Marvel Television's #Ironheart, coming June 24 to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/DVJRZPqpE1
The cast is filled out by Lyric Ross as Riri’s friend Natalie Washington, Alden Ehrenreich as Joe McGillicuddy, Matthew Elam as Xavier Washington, Anji White as Riri’s mother and Manny Montana as Cousin John.
Who is Shea Couleé’s character in Ironheart
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, who also shared an exclusive still image of Shea/ Slug (16 June) with some green hair, chunky silver chain, eye makeup and a fierce ear cuff, Shea has finally spilled (some of)) the beans about what we can expect from her character.
“You will be seeing the diva in some looks,” Shea says of her character, whom she only identifies as a “really fierce hacker” called Slug.
“I help a group of urban Robin Hoods to take away from the privileged and help give back to the community,” Shea said. “I’m there to help out on all the missions that go down, trying to shift this power dynamic in this version of Chicago we see in the show.”
First look at ‘Drag Race’ star Shea Couleé in ‘IRONHEART’
— Cosmic Marvel (@cosmic_marvel) June 16, 2025
Coming to Disney+ on June 24.
(via @EW) pic.twitter.com/ZmsGZkcKJw
When Shea was first confirmed for Ironheart, many fans lept at the conclusion that she would be playing Shade/ Darkveil; Marvel’s mutant drag queen.
And though her official billing is ‘Slug’, Shea did also confirm that she’s got a shady past involving drag – one that she’s sashaying away from.
“From my understanding, this version of Slug they’re presenting is someone who’s being referred to as a code name. I don’t want to give too much of their backstory away. They need an alternative code name to go by because there could or could not be some people looking for them,” the All Stars 5 champ spilled.
“They’ve kind of left drag. They are a drag queen, but it’s kind of a past life,” Shea told the publication. “You see them in drag, but it’s kind of in the context of flashbacks before where they are now, because they’re trying to be on the low-low!”
So while the Ironheart character is officially called ‘Slug’, Shea could still be playing an on-the-run version of Shade, a mutant with the ability to control and manipulate darkness and shadow.
Ironheart will premiere with its first three episodes on Disney + on 24 June.
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