Letitia Wright

 

For Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Letitia Wright delivers a strong performance as an unconventional female character in a movie loaded with them.

Wright reprises the role of Shuri, the genius sister of the fallen Wakanda king and Black Panther, T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), who eventually becomes queen and the Black Panther. Shuri is all science and swagger.

Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira), the leader of Wakanda's Dora Milaje, the all-female army, set off in search of the inventor of a device that locates the rare extraterrestrial element that is the source of Wakanda's power and wealth.

The inventor is Riri, a street-smart, "young, gifted and Black" female student at MIT (Dominique Thorne). She and Shuri bond immediately, recognizing kindred spirits. Riri, in her version of Iron Man flying armor, joins the Wakandans in a battle royale against a mortal threat from beneath the ocean.

Also joining the large cast is the fine British actress Michaela Coel as a headstrong member of the Dora Milaje, who becomes General Okoye's protege. A final montage near the film's close suggests she and another fierce Dora Milaje warrior Ayo (Florence Kasumba) are intimate companions.

What is to be made of all of this, aside from "Black Girl Magic" affirmations? Probably not much more since the film's narrative only hints at the psychological and emotional layers beneath the surface for these characters.

It is quite likely writer / director Ryan Coogler and the heads of Marvel Studios know Black Panter audiences will have little appetite for a full-blown exploration of non-binary relationships among these remarkable Black women.

And that's a pity.

As a postscript, Letitia Wright's performance as an emotionally arrested young gay woman in the 2015 British series Banana is a real treat, nuanced and heartrending.