Infinity War Director Confirms Shuri’s The Smartest MCU Character

With her genius-level intellect and remarkable inventions, Shuri is by far the smartest MCU character.

Or so says writer-director Joe Russo, who recently took part in a Wired video feature to promote the Blu-ray launch of Avengers: Infinity War (spoilers: it’s available today).

Asked about the smartest minds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – think Bruce Banner and Tony Stark – Joe Russo turned the attention to Black Panther‘s younger sister to confirm that, yes, she’s the one MCU character capable of solving just about anything with her brains.

Shuri is the smartest person in the Marvel universe. She is the sister of T’Challa [and] the princess of Wakanda. And she is the brains behind Wakanda’s incredibly advanced technology.

That’s not all that surprising, really, as Shuri was able to decipher Vision (and the Mind Stone) pretty quickly during the finale of Avengers: Infinity War – much to the bemusement of Bruce Banner, who can do nothing but gawk at her intelligence.

It does beg the question, though: is Shuri considered the brains of the entire operation simply because she has access to resources and technology that far surpass those outside Wakanda? Not even Tony Stark is capable of designing magnetic, high-tech transport systems and weapons-grade vibranium; although, those blasters sure come in handy when a usurper – like, say, Erik Killmonger – threatens to overthrow the one true king of Wakanda.

It’s since been confirmed that Letitia Wright’s Shuri survived the apocalyptic events of Infinity War, which only leaves us feeling quietly confident that she’ll feature quite prominently when Avengers 4 steamrolls into theaters next year. Stay tuned for more on that one.