Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gave us an emotional look at where Wakanda is without their king and while the trailer had us crying for the loss of Chadwick Boseman, the trailer also brought a new hero into the mix: Riri Williams. Played by Dominique Thorne, the young genius is a character that was created in 2016 but made her mark instantly on fans of the comics. Riri, who also is known as Ironheart, is a young fifteen year old from Chicago who is so smart that she goes to MIT to study and becomes connected with Tony Stark while there.
Yes, she’s that good. Thus creating a bond that helps her to make her own suit and take on the mantle as Ironheart and be the hero that Riri very much is. And while she’s a relatively new Marvel character, it just feels so amazing to see her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the trailer, we get to see her not only in her element in Shuri’s lab but the two appear to be friends.
In what looks like a callback to how Shuri and T’Challa greeted each other in Black Panther, Shuri walks into her lab and her and Riri have a handshake together and this is a dream of mine! All I wanted was Shuri, Riri, and Peter Parker all in the lab together and while Peter is definitely not going to be around anytime soon, it was so nice and surprising have Shuri and Riri there together.
Making her suit
The other part of the trailer that made me emotional was the brief moment of Riri clearly working on her Ironheart suit. In the comics, she works with Tony Stark and learns from him and while we don’t know if she’s ever met him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she is building her suit all on her own just like Tony would and it is emotional seeing this smart girl become the hero she’s meant to be.
Riri’s power is clear. She was created in 2016 and she’s important enough to Marvel as a whole and fans that she’s already making her live-action debut. As someone who loves most everything from Marvel, seeing that a series about Ironheart was coming and seeing Riri Williams for the first time made me so incredibly happy and it just gives me a lot of hope for the future of the MCU because Riri Williams deserves the world. She’s brilliant and seeing her making the heart was enough to keep me screaming all the way until November.
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For me, there are few characters that I love that I’m still waiting for. Riri Williams seemed like a pipe dream and while I do have hope that we’ll see a live-action Miles Morales sooner rather than later, it does feel so incredible to see Riri working and creating her suit and getting to be the genius she is in the comics. I hope she continues past Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and her own show because it’s what my baby Riri Williams deserves.
(image: Marvel Entertainment)
