As is the case with every episode of What If…?, we get to see a new side to characters we know and love. Like Riri Williams. In an episode titled “What If…The Emergence Destroyed Earth?,” fans got to see just how strong she really is.
Riri (Dominique Thorne) lives in a universal that was destroyed by the Emergence before the Eternals could stop it. Men like Quentin Beck (Alejandro Saab) have taken control and he uses his illusions to try and trick those remaining humans. Riri, using her own intelligence and creation, fights back on her own before she ends up meeting a pretty iconic team. Ying Nan (Michelle Wong), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Okoye (Kenna Ramsey), and Wong (David Chen) are all working together to try and take on White Vision and Beck.
Riri joins them and the rest is iconic history. What I loved about an episode highlighting my girl was that it let Riri Williams shine in her own way. She wasn’t learning from Tony Stark or even using Shuri’s tech like in Wakanda Forever. She was doing it entirely on her own and it was HER intelligence that saved everyone else. That’s my MIT girl!
As of this moment, Riri Williams is one of the smartest people in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To be fair, in this episode, she is the smartest person because even though Vision is canonically smarter, White Vision was being controlled by Beck who is nowhere near Riri’s level of intelligence.
When the announcement came that Riri was getting her own series, I thought I was going to faint. Mainly because I didn’t expect to see my girl in the live-action any time soon. And now this episode of What If…? has me even more excited about her future in the MCU!
I’m so excited for Ironheart
Riri Williams was introduced as a character in 2016. A young Black girl from Chicago who ends up going to MIT at 15 because of her intelligence, Riri ended up being the perfect successor to Tony Stark. In the comics, he is her mentor and he even becomes her A.I., which could maybe happen in the show. Especially now that Robert Downey Jr. is back in the MCU.
The show is also bringing us a number of characters we’e been waiting for. Anthony Ramos’ Red Hood (who also had an episode of What If…?) is exciting and we still don’t know who Alden Ehrenreich is playing. I hope it is Ezekiel Stane!
What Riri’s inclusion in What If…? did was just get me excited about her potential in the MCU. We haven’t really seen her post-Wakanda Forever and I’ve missed her. Seeing her shine in What If…? gives me hope that the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole will continue to recognize just how brilliant and smart Riri Williams is. After all, she found a way to turn herself into White Vision and defeat Quentin Beck on her own.
If you’re not impressed by that, I don’t know what to tell you. She rules!
Published: Dec 30, 2024 03:14 pm