Were Shuri and Namor supposedly love interests? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever? The film’s creative team can’t seem to make up their minds.
Fans and shippers were delighted when film editor Michael P. Shawver teased the duo’s romantic basis in early drafts of the sequel. If it was once a reality, what prevents it from becoming a reality again?
He said news week, “I think what’s really interesting is that there were takes where there was a connection. And at one point in an early edit, we were like, ‘Hey, let’s leave it at that? Do we just put it out there? Let’s just add some complexity to the relationship.’”
Shawver went on to explain that the team was careful about what they portrayed and didn’t want to reduce Shuri’s achievements to her “flirting to get what she wants,” so by drawing on the characters’ shared trauma, they decided to name You a “big brother” figure for the grieving engineer.
However, there is one scene that stuck with fans. When Shuri (Letitia Wright) has himself taken to Talokan, Namor (Tenoch Huerta) shows Shuri his kingdom and gives her his mother’s bracelet (which is fair fandom crack).
Shawver said: “Honestly, we need to stay sane and laugh a lot, especially in the harder or serious moments, so we used to joke about how now when he gave her that bracelet they were married and she wasn’t. I dont know.”
He further joked, “There’s a whole other movie where she’s like, ‘Wait, what, I’m the queen of Talokan now?'”
After MCU Direct picked up the quotes, production designer Hannah Beachler, who also worked on the first film, tweeted “No,” adding that the film “never did a romantic scene with them.”
She responded to confused fans in the comments added“I think Shawver was taken out of context. While there was a curiosity and what appeared to be a shared experience of loss, scenes that would be considered typical “romance” or physical intimacy were never filmed. Shawver is a good guy. Media that recreate something where there is nothing.”
After a viewer suggested that Shuri was flirting with Namor to ensure Riri’s (Dominique Thorne) safety, Beachler responded with, “Who’s going to tell them?” and a series of supporting emojis.
Shawver has yet to respond to the ongoing speculation, but as the shipper, I choose to live in ignorant bliss, because who doesn’t fancy this dreamy merman?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in cinemas.