Black Panther: Wakanda Forever introduced the MCU's take on Riri Williams, revealing fairly early on that her genius intellect had inadvertently put her on Namor's radar.
We then saw the teenager blast into action in her own "homemade" Ironheart suit before getting a major upgrade courtesy of her time in Wakanda. Despite helping to turn the tide against the Talokans in that epic final battle, Riri had to leave her new suit behind, likely due to it being incredibly powerful and enhanced with Vibranium.
The design is one that's received a mostly positive response, but Marvel Studios concept artist Phil Saunders has revealed that it wasn't really the Mark II suit; instead, it was more akin to Mark 2.5.
Sharing the artwork below, Saunders explained that this design shows the real Mark II armour as it's "what Riri is wearing under the add-on armor you see in the movie that should properly be called the Mk 2.5. You can actually see this design in the suit-building montage, as the schematic that Riri is working on in Wakanda."
"Unfortunately, we never got to see it in all its glory" the artist continues. "There was originally a scene where Namora disables the combat upgrades and Riri has to eject the armor add-ons underwater, leaving her to escape in just the base suit with repulsors, but sadly it got cut. Expect a keyframe of that scene shortly!"
While this wouldn't have made a huge difference to how the sequel's story played out, it's definitely interesting that a sequence like this ended up on the cutting room floor.
Ironheart set photos have already confirmed that the Disney+ series will give Riri some vastly different armours for her battle against The Hood, and they don't look anywhere near as sci-fi-esque as what we saw in the Black Panther sequel.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.
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