Dominique Thorne To Debut As Ironheart In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Actress Dominique Thorne will have her live-action debut as the armored superhero Riri Williams, also known as Ironheart in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The news was revealed in an interview with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige at ComicBook.com.

"We're shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, right now, and the character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first," he teased. “She started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series.”

Thorne was announced to play Williams in a standalone Disney+ TV series during a Disney Investor Day event in December 2020. It was later reported that Chinaka Hodge (Snowpiercer) would write the series.

Williams, created by comic book writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Mike Deodato first appeared in 2016’s Invincible Iron Man #7 in 2016. The character is a 15-year-old engineer from Chicago who designs her own armored suit, similar to Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit while studying at MIT. After Stark reaches out to Williams, he gives her his blessing to a superhero. While it hasn't been revealed whether or not Robert Downey Jr. will reprise his role as Tony Stark for the series, we're not holding our breath since the character died in Avengers: Endgame.

Thorne’s previous acting roles were in Judas and the Black Messiah as Judy Harmon and If Beale Street Could Talk as Sheila Hunt.

While Ironheart has yet to have a premiere date on Disney+, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to premiere in theaters on July 8, 2022.

Image credit: Getty Images/Dia Dipasupil