Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Producer Reveals What Ironheart Adds to the MCU

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore revealed what Ironheart added to that story and the MCU moving forward. The excellent Official Black Panther Podcast sat down to speak with the Marvel executive about the latest entry in Ryan Coogler’s franchise. During their chat, he talked about Dominique Thorne’s Young Avenger in waiting. Riri Williams was an MCU newcomer in the project and a definite source of humor and connection for a lot of Marvel fans out there. Moore points to her ability to adapt in adverse conditions and bridge the gap between all these different cultures. There will probably be some measure of that in the future MCU projects that are coming up.

“I think Riri is an interesting addition to the franchise, because, much like Talokan, it’s a study in contrast, right? It’s someone who, you could argue, is as smart as Shuri is, but educated in a completely different society with a completely different experience as a Black woman in America,” Moore explained. “And so to hold those two characters next to each other, there’s, again, there’s just narrative tension in that relationship.”

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 He added, “And so, I’ll just go back to it, Ryan as a filmmaker and a storyteller is interested in building the tension of people and seeing how they pinball off each other. And so, when you have both Wakanda, and Talokan, and Shuri, and Riri, and Namor, who all have these points of view who are in contrast with each other, there’s magic in that if you can land on it correctly.”

What Will Ironheart Be Like In Her Own Series?

Thorne has her own Disney+ series coming up this year. She talked to Rolling Stone how being back on her home turf would influence the character. After all, she spent the majority of Wakanda Forever in a foreign land fighting in a conflict that really seemed to be about the African nation and the Talocan residents. Expect a little bit more room to stretch when Ironheart hits the streaming service.

“Oh yeah. Because we also have to remember that the Riri we see in Wakanda Forever is a Riri under duress. She is in this super heightened situation. And she’s…I wouldn’t say silencing herself, but acting however someone would act when they know that they are responsible for causing a war between nations,” Thorne said. “However someone would act when they’ve just been kidnapped in the middle of their day when they were planning to go to differential equations class in 15 minutes. So it’s a lot of heightened situations, which means we get to see Riri doing her best to perform respect for royalty, to know her role as the person who incited all this pain.”

Are you excited for Ironheart this year? Let us know down in the comments!