Riri Williams Ironheart Will Debut in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever!”

Dominique Thorne (“If Beale Street Could Talk“) will be bringing Marvel Comics character Riri Williams to life in the upcoming Disney+ series “Ironheart.” Not only that, but, she’ll be making her first appearance in the upcoming “Black Panther” sequel!

This news came during a press conference with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, who confirmed not only that filming on “Wakanda Forever” had begun, but that Thorne will make her MCU debut in the Ryan Coogler film.

“We’re shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, right now, and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first,” Feige said. “She [Throne] started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series.”

Riri Williams aka Ironheart was first introduced to Marvel Comics readers in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man #7. A young BRILLIANT engineer and scientist, Williams gets accepted to MIT at the age of 15. Subsequently, she designs and builds her very own Iron Man style suit, and eventually gets Tony Stark’s blessing to carry on the mantle.

While a Tony Stark flashback scene with Robert Downey Jr. might make sense, we’re not hearing any indications it’ll happen. Perhaps instead, it’ll be Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) who steps in as mentor to Riri.

We absolutely cannot WAIT to see Thorne in the role.

“Ironheart” will premiere on Disney+ at some point, but doesn’t have a release date yet. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is currently set to hit theaters on July 8th, 2022.