Why Chicagoans Should Be Particularly Excited to See ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ This Weekend

If you’re a Chicago movie and TV fan, you have even more reason to head to the theater this weekend. Your first look at Ironheart is approaching faster than you think. In fact, it’s here. Before the Ironheart TV series for Disney+, which recently filmed in the Windy City, rockets onto screens in 2023, fans will see the superhero in action this week in the highly anticipated movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Actor Dominique Thorne will don the Ironheart armor and play a key role in the Wakanda Forever storyline.

As for the Ironheart series, production just wrapped a two-week shoot in Chicago, the city that the lead character, Riri Williams aka Ironheart, calls home. The October/November stint also marked a wrap on overall production for the series, which now heads into post-production, eyeing a 2023 release. For more about Marvel Studios’ recent shoot in Chicago, click here for SCREEN’s extensive coverage of the Ironheart production.

Back to the present. As you and yours flock to the cinema this week for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, keep an eye out for Ironheart. You can catch a quick glimpse of Ironheart towards the end of the trailer for the blockbuster premiering this weekend…

Chicagoan in the Marvel Studios Director’s Chair

As SCREEN reported in May, Chicago native Sam Bailey is directing multiple episodes of this latest foray into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Sam Bailey’s star has taken off since her Primetime Emmy nomination for the web series Brown Girls, which she created with poet Fatimah Asghar in her hometown of Chicago. The series starred two young women coming to terms with queer identity, and navigating career and relationships, and went on to be developed with HBO. Since then, Bailey has become a mainstay in the television circuit, directing episodes of the series Alone Together, First Wives Club, East of La Brea, Grown-ish, Loosely Exactly Nicole, and Netflix’s Dear White People, for which she was also a writer and producer.

As for Bailey’s Chicago roots, she was born in the city’s Logan Square neighborhood. Bailey began stage acting as a teenager and received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia College Chicago, before co-creating the aforementioned Brown Girls.

While Bailey was back in town to direct Ironheart, she stopped by IFA Chicago for an intimate chat about her career, to a capacity crowd. Click here for exclusive photos from the event.

Enjoy Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this weekend, and keep an eye out for Ironheart!

Check back here at SCREEN for updates as Ironheart forges ahead to a 2023 release. You can also click right here to subscribe to our weekly email newsletter.