New Details on The Practical Ironheart Mark I Armor in BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER
I was actually pretty excited about the introduction of Riri Williams a.k.a. Ironheart in Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The character was played by Dominque Thorne in the film, and she will be getting her own spinoff series on Disney+ titled Ironheart.
I was personally a little disappointed with Ironheart’s introduction, though. I loved the comic book version of the character, but what we got in the film was very different from that. I didn’t find the character as interesting as she was in the comic.
As for the Ironheart suit, the final version that we saw in the film looked like it was inspired by something you’d see in Power Rangers. But, we do have some details to share with you in regard to the Mark I version of the suit that we see earlier in the film. It turns out that was all practical and it was worn by Thorne in the film. During a recent interview, she talked about her experience wearing the suit, saying:
"Unlike some of the other suits that may be added in later with visual effects, the Mark I was all practical. To get to feel the weight of that on my body and just understand how it moves — you almost want to say it's clunky, but when you have it on, you realize, 'Oh, this is actually such a smart build, like all my joints are free so I have so much movement. But also, this is heavy as hell. And it flies? Whoa!' The doors open wide into Riri's mind and how she thinks. What she saw was possible and then actualized."
It’s cool to hear that Marvel Studios is still doing some things practically as they did in the beginning with Iron Man. Most of the stuff we see is all CGI now, so the fact that they actually build the Mark I was cool to learn.
When talking about Iron Man’s epic Mark I suit, special effects creator Shane Mahan revealed in an interview with Stan Winston School that it weighed 90 pounds and Robert Downey Jr. didn't wear it. It was worn by stunt performer Mike Justice.
"Mike Justice had to get into great shape, and he had to keep that up the whole time because there's a lot of parts on the Mark I suit. It's very heavy. We were limited to the materials we had, the epoxy armor, the aluminum frame, the backpack, and lots of leather. I think it came in at around 90 pounds, which doesn't sound like a lot until you're in it all day. If we were to do it today, with all that we've done for Iron Man 1-3 and The Avengers... The Mark I would be about 40 pounds now. But whenever you do something for the first time, it's kind of an experiment."
I sure did love that original Mark I suit! Black Panther: Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore also went on to talk about Ironheart in the film, explaining to Marvel.com what they were looking to do with the character:
"We thought Riri Williams was the perfect character to sort of slot into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever because she could do a lot of things at the same time. We liked the idea of Shuri seeing herself reflected in a contemporary in a surprising way. She's funny. She's current. She's innovative. In some ways, she doesn't realize how smart she really is.
"Riri Williams is such a compelling character in publishing who also has a shared history with grief and trauma. There was sort of this karmic kinship between the two characters that became immediately apparent and made our jobs really easy. We thought it was really interesting if Shuri found someone else to be as aspirational as others end her. And so there's this immediate both rivalry and, and, and kinship that I think plays throughout the rest of the movie and potentially on into the MCU."
What did you all think about Ironheart's big introduction to the MCU? Do you like how the character was handled? Are you excited for her upcoming solo series!?
