Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still Marvel's best passing of the torch – so I hope Shuri gets to shine in Avengers: Doomsday

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.

Love persevering

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.

It's this raw emotion that makes Shuri's journey to becoming a fully fledged hero so compelling. Shuri, very understandably, does not want to become the Black Panther. It doesn't even cross her mind. Instead, she has the incredibly human reaction of simply wanting to grieve. But in the Marvel universe, nobody has any breathing space for long, and the arrival of Namor and the threat of CIA intervention over Vibranium pushes Shuri back into the fray. It's when the situation spirals out of control, and Namor kills her mother, Queen Ramonda, that Shuri finally returns to attempting to reconstruct the heart-shaped herb.

As a showdown with Killmonger in the Ancestral Plane demonstrates, though, Shuri is not solely motivated by an altruistic desire to be a hero: she wants revenge. Her anger and pain at the loss of T'Challa have been exacerbated by the murder of her mother, resulting in a furious grief that threatens to plunge Wakanda into an endless war with its underwater neighbours. It's a natural breaking point in her struggle to deal with so much loss, and sets Shuri's arc apart from the rise to greatness of other MCU heroes in its messy, intense vulnerability and pain.

Ultimately, though, Shuri, movingly encouraged by the spirit of Ramonda, chooses peace by sparing Namor's life and putting an end to the fighting between Wakanda and Talokan. This triumphant finish clears the way, allowing Shuri to finally process her grief – and even meet her nephew, T'Challa II. Her story in the film ends with a quiet moment on the beach, burning her mourning clothes, letting go of the painful past in order to face a more hopeful future.

Shuri's journey is not easy, and it's not one she even wanted – mirroring the awful real-life circumstances that led to the storyline. In this anguish is a beautiful evolution, powered by a standout performance from Wright, that brings Shuri from the fun, kid sister sidekick to the Black Panther herself. This passing of the torch is so effective because it truly means something, both within the MCU and in real life, and it gifts Shuri with boundless potential.

The Black Panther lives

It was announced at SDCC that Shuri will soon be passing on the mantle herself, this time to T'Challa II. The Long Walk star David Jonsson will play the character, though how it will all work out is unclear at the moment, since Jonsson is much older than the young T'Challa II at the end of Wakanda Forever. ("In this next film, he grows up, comes of age, and we had to find an incredible actor," director Ryan Coogler shared on stage.)

Hopefully, then, Shuri gets her chance to shine in Avengers: Doomsday before surrendering the mantle. This is her first opportunity to truly spread her wings as the Black Panther after Wakanda Forever, and, with such a stacked cast, there's every risk Shuri might fall by the wayside – which would be a huge mistake, after how far she has come. She can be glimpsed in the trailers so far, though sadly not for very long.

But Wright may have already inadvertently let slip that she's part of the Avengers: Secret Wars cast, which would mean we have one more chance after Doomsday to see her in all her power before Jonsson takes over in Black Panther 3. What might happen in Secret Wars heavily depends on Doomsday, of course, but this duo of blockbuster event films offers the perfect chance to bring Shuri's MCU story to a meaningful close, paying off the emotional set-up of Wakanda Forever.

Shuri was never supposed to be the Black Panther, but she has more than proved how capable she is of being Wakanda's protector – and I hope Doomsday gives her the chance to truly show it.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is available to stream now on Disney Plus, ahead of the release of Avengers: Doomsday on December 18.

Look ahead with our list of upcoming Marvel movies and check out how to watch the Marvel movies in order ahead of your next rewatch. See you next week as we revisit Captain America: Brave New World.