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Ironheart to join MCU in Black Panther 2

Riri Williams will make her debut in the Marvel sequel

Riri Williams as Ironheart

We’re a new Iron person on the way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we’ll be meeting her sooner than expected. Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart, is involved in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Kevin Feige, head of Marvel Studios, dropped the titbit while doing press for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. “We’re shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever right now, and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in that film first,” he told Comicbook.com. “She started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series.”

Riri’s series, Ironheart, was announced for streaming service Disney Plus as part of Marvel Phase 4. She’s a teenage genius who manages to build an Iron Man suit using parts found in college, and becomes a junior version of Iron Man. Tony Stark sees all this, and decides to mentor her. In the MCU, this storyline was transposed onto Spider-Man, and it sounds like Riri will now get the support of Wakanda instead, possibly from Shuri, another young, gifted scientist.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever began production in June. Ryan Coogler is returning to direct the action movie sequel, which is co-written by he and Joe Robert Cole. We don’t know much about plots, especially in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s passing, but Feige has gone on record saying Marvel will “make Chad proud”.

Boseman’s last performance is part of Marvel’s What If…? series, an anthology of alternative realities based on the multiverse from the Loki ending. In his episode, he becomes Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill, and you’d be surprised how much that changes things.

What If…? is streaming now on Disney Plus. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is due in theatres July 8, 2022.