Marvel fans will be getting a look at one of the up-and-coming heroes of the MCU earlier than expected.
Dominique Thorne, who will star as the superhero Ironheart in her own Disney Plus series, will make her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” next year, Variety has confirmed.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige first revealed the news in an interview with Comicbook.com while speaking about the upcoming “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 ‘Black Panther 2’ first,” he told Comicbook.com. “She started shooting, I think, this week before her ‘Ironheart’ series.”
Ironheart, a.k.a. Riri Williams, was introduced in the Marvel comics in 2016 as a 15-year-old MIT student who reverse engineers Iron Man’s armor in order to create her own suit of armor. With the support of Iron Man, a.k.a. Tony Stark, Riri takes on the name Ironheart and becomes a superhero. Her solo Disney Plus series was announced at Disney’s investor day in December 2020 and currently does not have a release date.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will hit theaters on July 8, 2022, and production began in June 2021. Details on the film are being kept under wraps, but cast members Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o, Florence Kasumba and Angela Bassett will likely reprise their roles from the first film. Variety exclusively revealed last month that “I May Destroy You” creator and star Michaela Coel joined the cast in an unknown role.
Thorne was recently seen in “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
Chinaka Hodge, a writer on Apple’s “Amazing Stories” and TNT’s “Snowpiercer,” will serve as head writer on “Ironheart.” Other Marvel shows coming to Disney Plus include “Hawkeye,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Moon Knight,” “She-Hulk,” “Armor Wars,” “Secret Invasion,” an untitled Wakanda series, a “Guardians of the Galaxy” holiday special and Season 2 of “Loki.”
Thorne is repped by Paradigm Talent Agency, Viewpoint and Peikoff Mahan Law Office.