In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams becomes the target of Namor after she invents a machine that can detect vibranium and accidentally confirms the existence of the legendary underwater kingdom of Talokan. On her first team-up with Shuri and Okoye, Riri uses a prototype to fly and escape the FBI. The Ironheart Mark 1 prototype was certainly nothing like Iron Man’s suits but Dominique Thorne enjoyed wearing it because of its practicality. The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star recently spoke to Collider where she gushed about the suit.
“Ah, man, it was pretty cool, I’m not going to lie. It was pretty otherworldly to feel the weight of it,” Thorne said. “That was the quickest entry point into Riri Williams because, of course, I know that she’s an engineer, she’s a mechanic, I know she is a gearhead. She’s into building things with their hands — very much from scratch — to form what’s in her mind.” She added, “Unlike some of the other suits that may be added in later with visual effects, the Mark I was all practical. To get to feel the weight of that on my body and just understand how it moves — you almost want to say it’s clunky, but when you have it on, you realize, ‘Oh, this is actually such a smart build, like all my joints are free so I have so much movement. But also, this is heavy as hell. And it flies? Whoa!’”
Unfortunately, Mark 1 was damaged and the second Ironheart suit is in the possession of Wakanda. Still, we’re expecting Riri to work on Mark 3 when she returns in her own solo series in the future. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now screening in theaters.
