Black Panther: Wakanda Foreverintroduced not one but two brand new Marvel characters, three if Shuri picking up the mantle counts. However, only one of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams will get to star in her own Disney Plus series, making many wonder what Ironheart’s suit will look like in that show.
MCU fans caught their first glimpse of Riri Williams in full armor in theBlack Panther: Wakanda Forevertrailers, showing a very distinct look featuring bright colors that, contrary to her demeanor in the film, don’t really match her comic book appearances norRobert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. However, Ironheart didn’t have just one “outfit” designed for her debut appearance. Besides the makeshift Mark 1 armor, Marvel Studios' artist came up with another extra model.
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This revelation comes courtesy of concept artist Phil Saunders (@philjdsaunders), whose resume speaks for itself, as his portfolio includes nearly all of Iron Man’s suits in the MCU. In two posts, Saunders showed images of what was originally meant to be Williams' Mark 2 suit, which is partly concealed under the piece of armor fans got to see in the final cut of theBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, or what he calls the Mk 2.5 suit. As Saunders explains, the base armor was supposed to be seen during Ironheart’s fight at sea after Namora disarms the upper 2.5 combat layer, leaving Riri to fight with the more simplistic set, but that scene was ultimately cut.
Saunders' second post on the topic saw him upload the full 360° model, with a couple more videos showing just how much bulk Ironheart’s finalized suit has on top of it. He did note that the blueprints for this suit can be seen in Shuri’s lab when the two are working together. Saunders' work is all over the MCU, as his credits includeIron Man,Iron Man 3,Captain America: Civil War,Spider-Man: Homecoming,WandaVision,Shang-Chi,and the entireAvengerssaga, as well as films such asTron Legacy,John Carter,andThe King’s Man.
Black Panther 2made it clear that Williams doesn’t get to take that fancy Wakandan tech back to MIT, meaning she will have to source her ownnew suit again in theIronheartseries. Saunders might be tasked with designing those suits, and though this concept art looks amazing, many Marvel fans weren’t happy with Ironheart’s final look in the film, perhaps suggesting there’s room for improvement.
Of course, that might largely depend on what kind of threatIronheartfaces in her own series, as there’s been somespeculation Mephisto could be the big villainafter Thorne’s character.
Black Panther: Wakanda Foreveris now playing in theaters.
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