Dominique Thorne made her MCU debut as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and her character will soon return for her own Ironheart Disney+ series.
In the comics, Riri is encouraged to become a crime-fighter by Tony Stark, who becomes a mentor of sorts to the young hero. Stark's death in Avengers: Endgame would obviously make that particular dynamic very difficult to replicate, but Ironheart is expected to carry on Iron Man's legacy (to some extent, at least), and Thorne got the chance to chat with Robert Downey Jr. while filming Wakanda Forever.
Thorne tells Screen Rant that she was able to speak with the actor via FaceTime towards the end of the shoot, and he gave her some advice about the best way to approach her character.
"He had some beautiful words to say about how much he believes that Riri Williams is and should always be her own person, her own thing. That this legacy is headed in the right direction and all the beautiful encouraging things that you hope to hear from the Iron Man himself.”
Though the Black Panther sequel never even mentions Stark (there is a reference to Riri building an Iron Man suit), director Ryan Coogler did suggest that there is come kind of connection between the characters in a recent interview, so perhaps we'll learn more about their "complicated" relationship in Ironheart.
There's been speculation that Stark could be reintroduced to The MCU as an AI or holo-guide (doubtful), and an out-there theory proposes that Riri could turn out to be Tony's estranged daughter (even more unlikely).
Have you been to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever yet? If so, what did you think? You can check out our review here.
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.