Many fans were shocked to find out that Shuri was apparently dusted during Thanos’ snap. The news was just as much a shock for Wright as it was for fans.
Black Panther favorite Letitia Wright, who plays the young princess Shuri, revealed she and many fans shared a similar experience when Marvel released its character posters for Avengers: Endgame. On the posters, all characters who survived Thanos’ snap were pictured in color, like Iron Man and Captain America. Characters who didn’t survive, like Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, were in black and white.
Most of the characters’ fate was a given — except for Shuri, who we hadn’t seen snapped away in Avengers: Infinity War. Despite that, her poster was released in black and white, signaling she apparently didn’t survive the snap. And while it may have been a shock to fans, Letitia Wright was also just as shocked by the reveal from Marvel.
During an interview with Marvel at the Avengers: Endgame premiere, as ComicBook.com reports, Wright shared how she felt that day when she found out the surprising news:
"It was surprising. I saw everybody in the colored posters, and then I saw myself in gray. And I was [like], “I just died out of nowhere!” And I think the whole of Twitter was really upset. So I kind of logged off and didn’t log on back. So I’m waiting to see how that came together and how that panned out tonight."
Based on what Wright said at the premiere, it sounds like her involvement in Endgame won’t be what we were hoping for. We were happy to see Shuri in Infinity War, but she had only a few lines in the movie. Shuri would have been a strong asset to the Avengers if she had stayed alive, but it looks like the team won’t be getting her help this time around.
With this in mind, will we even see Shuri at all in Endgame? Most of Infinity War and Endgame was filmed at the same time, with actors saying they weren’t sure which scenes were going in which movies.
But if Wright didn’t know about Shuri dying, it could mean she didn’t even film a scene where Shuri comes back to life. It’s possible Endgame will find a way to work Shuri into the story — why else would they make a character poster for her? But Wright herself seemingly wasn’t aware of how that would happen.
Hopefully Shuri will appear on screen in Endgame. Otherwise, it would be a huge injustice for the character. If not, we trust that director Ryan Coogler will be able to address the post-snap world for Shuri and the rest of the Wakandans in Black Panther 2.
Avengers: Endgame is in theaters starting Thursday night. By then, we’ll know for sure how Shuri and everyone else survives.