Shuri was never supposed to be the Black Panther. In 2020, Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed T'Challa with so much regal gravitas, died at the age of 43. In the terrible aftermath, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released – a beautiful entry in the MCU that functions both as a deeply loving tribute to Boseman and an emotional passing of the torch to Letitia Wright's Shuri.
It's this context that makes Black Panther: Wakanda Forever such an extraordinary accomplishment. Not only is it a genuinely thrilling chapter in the MCU, but it also pulls off the tricky task of handing over the mantle in a way that feels respectful and natural to the characters involved, while honoring the real Boseman. It doesn't shy away from this reality, instead choosing to tell a story that focuses heavily on Shuri's raw grief and her complicated journey to stepping up as her nation's protector.
Now, Shuri is set to return in Avengers: Doomsday, standing alongside other Marvel titans like Chris Hemsworth's Thor and the original X-Men. I just hope that, among the stacked cast, Shuri gets her chance to shine – because she's earned it.
Wakanda Forever begins with T'Challa dying from a mystery illness. Despite her super-genius intellect, Shuri is powerless against this invisible enemy and unable to synthesize a new heart-shaped herb, and so T'Challa dies. Shuri, who idolized her big brother, is devastated – and, after a time-skip of a year, she is still struggling with her all-encompassing grief, which is making her as angry as she is heartbroken.
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