See Ironheart Star Dominique Thorne Audition For A Completely Different Marvel Role
Dominique Thorne, now the MCU's Riri Williams/Ironheart, originally auditioned for the role of Shuri in Black Panther.
Dominique Thorne has a bright future ahead of her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, but she originally auditioned for a much different role. A recently released audition video shows that Thorne originally auditioned for the part of Shuri in Black Panther. She even got to do a screen test with the late Chadwick Boseman, which you can watch part of below:
As you can tell from the audition, Dominique Thorne’s infectious energy is definitely there, but it seems like the casting team felt that Letitia Wright was the better choice for the role. Still, her high-energy audition was enough to get her a role further down the line as Riri Williams, and she got to make her MCU debut in a different Black Panther film instead. We got to see Thorne don the Ironheart armor in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last year and now we’ll get to see her lead her own series before the year ends.
As always, Marvel knows how to perfectly cast their roles. Letitia Wright has done a fantastic job so far as Shuri, and she’s now taken her place as the MCU’s new Black Panther after the events of Wakanda Forever. Meanwhile, Dominique Thorne’s energy perfectly fits the part of Riri Williams.
The MCU is so huge and carefully constructed that there have been plenty of similar ‘what if’ casting scenarios like the Dominique Thorne/Riri Williams one. For instance, Tom Hiddleston originally was going for the role of Thor, but he ended up getting the part of Loki instead — and Hemsworth and Hiddleston have been nailing their parts ever since. Another famous example is John Krasinski losing the Captain America role to Chris Evans, only to eventually show up as a Mr. Fantastic variant years later.
Dominique Thorne landing the part of Ironheart means that we should probably expect to see her in the MCU for many years to come. As one of the youngest heroes, there are probably some pretty big plans for her character. Along with the aforementioned Disney+ show, it seems likely that we could see Ironheart in one of the two upcoming Avengers films.
Dominique Thorne will also definitely be a part of the long-rumored Young Avengers film if that ever comes to fruition. Over the last couple of years, we’ve been introduced to plenty of young heroes that could make up the MCU iteration of the Young Avengers. Along with Ironheart, we’ve been introduced to Kate Bishop, Ms. Marvel, Hulk’s son Skaar, the Maximoff twins, America Chavez, Eli Bradley, Love, Cassie Lang, and T’Challa’s son.
All of these characters could easily be assembled for a Young Avengers team, and Dominique Thorne’s Ironheart would undoubtedly be an essential part of that. For now, we’ll just have to look at rumors and leaks to see what the MCU holds in store next for Riri Williams. If you want to get properly introduced to her character before her series, you can now stream Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Disney+.
