While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was primarily concerned with Shuri (Letitia Wright) balancing her grief in the face of new responsibilities to Wakanda and the mantle of Black Panther, along with mounting tensions with Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and the kingdom of Talokan. But even within all this, a new character emerged on the MCU scene and stole the hearts of the audience, namely one Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).
In a 1-on-1 interview with Collider celebrating her partnership with the Puffs Power Pals initiative, Thorne reflected on role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and specifically on which moment she filmed that she wished had made the final cut. For Thorne, the moment that comes to mind is one that remained in the film in a small way, and happens between Riri and Shuri in the caves of Talokan. Elaborating on the scene and what it meant to her, Thorne said:
"But there were a couple moments in the cave in Talokan between Shuri and Riri that really work to establish, I think more of a sisterhood between them. It connects them a little bit more on the things that we all associate with these two women, which is their intellect, their brilliance, the naturally occurring brilliance that they possess. In some of those cave sequences we got to see them notice that in each other, which, for both of these characters is almost like a breath of fresh air and also something completely new."
For Thorne, the beauty in the scene came from the fact that these two young, brilliant women could converse and see eye to eye about things that the rest of the world at large simply doesn't understand:
"[T]o get to see them speak their language and not have to translate it for in Shuri's case staff to execute, or in Riri's case, professors to understand her, but just to speak freely and to be understood and supported. And from that point get to bond and know more about each other and talk about... There were moments talking about how Riri came to build her first machine, and Shuri talking about the impact that her brother had on her."
While initially, Riri felt like simply the catalyst for the Wakanda-Talokan conflict, through Thorne's portrayal and small character moments, she emerged as a strong, funny teenage genius that audiences will get to spend a lot more time with when her solo series Ironheart drops on Disney+.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is streaming on Disney+ now.