Black Panther’s Letitia Wright attended MCM Comic Con in London over the weekend and expressed not only how grateful she is that her Princess Shuri character is officially a Disney Princess—as the company owns Marvel—but that she’s more than willing to don the Black Panther suit herself.
According to Deadline, when a fan asked if she was ready to take over as Wakanda’s leader—after the harrowing events of Avengers: Infinity War left a power vacuum in her country—Wright answered coyly but positively. “To be comic-book accurate, yes,” she said, presumably not too keen on stepping on anybody’s toes, while excited at the notion of her eventually taking over the titular role.
For those of you who’ve seen the film—and let’s face it, everybody has—Princess Shuri is more than capable of serving as a well-rounded leader for Wakanda. She’s an amazing fighter, a literal genius, and has all the requisite values and Wakandan spirit instilled in her. All that’s missing, of course, is the panther suit—and Chadwick Boseman deciding to hang it up. To be clear, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. And why should it? The dude just got his own movie and deserves to at least get his own trilogy before passing the baton to anybody else. Wright, however, wouldn’t be a bad choice.
As for Shuri being part of the Disney Princess pantheon, Wright wasn’t sure if she was ready for the pressure of being a role model—but quickly realized it was less of a burden and more of blessing. “I was like,’ what’s this Disney Princess pressure? Do I have to be perfect?’” she said in reference to online discussions about her. “Then I realized that everyone’s just so geeked about having a different kind of female character in the Marvel universe and the Disney universe. And there’s going to be much, much more—I’m not the only Disney Princess to come to the surface and claim that title.”
Fortunately, a whole new generation of young girls can now see themselves represented on screen—as a capable, worthy, powerful princess—and that, in itself, is Wright’s reward. “I’m so honored, seriously,” she said. “I grew up on Disney movies and grew up with the Disney Princesses and they didn’t really look like me. But now, you can go buy action figures and say ‘this is a Disney Princess’—right on!”
