Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
As well as honoring the late King T’Challa, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also looks to the future of the franchise by introducing some key new players into the MCU. At the top of the list is Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, set to lead her own spinoff in the incoming Ironheart TV series. While the teen prodigy obviously already has ties to both the Iron Man and Black Panther sides of the universe, the comics tell us a team-up with a totally different Avenger could also be in the cards.
In the source material, Riri has direct ties to the Ten Rings organization, which leaves the door open for her to cross paths with Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi. Especially as the two share curiously similar daddy issues. In Wakanda Forever, Riri mentions her late father, who left her his prized car. In the comics, she likewise thought her dad was dead… only for him to be revealed as a loyal leader of the Ten Rings who faked his demise. Imagine how much Riri and Shang-Chi — the son of Wenwu — could relate?
Interestingly, Riri even battled the Ten Rings on Wakandan soil on one occasion, which would be a natural fit for an MCU adaptation so that she could reunite with Shuri and her other friends in the advanced African nation. With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings establishing that Xialing had taken over her father’s organization, there’s clearly more from them on the way. Possibly as soon as next fall’s Ironheart? Maybe.
Given that the Ten Rings organization was only introduced in the comics off the back of its creation in Iron Man, it would be pleasingly cyclical if the MCU ended up adapting Riri’s own connection to the criminal cabal — whether that be in Ironheart, Shang-Chi 2, Black Panther 3, or somewhere unexpected.
