Black Panther 2 Tested Romantic Tension Between Namor And Shuri, “They Were Married Now…”

Was there romance brewing between Shuri and Namor? Black Panther 2 Editor thinks so. But the Production Designer doesn’t! So choose your view

By Ishita Chatterjee
November 30,2022
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is reigning at the box-office and dominating social media conversations. But out of all the discussions, there’s one peculiar thing many viewers have highlighted. A lot of viewers felt that there was romantic tension between Namor and Shuri. But soon that thread of conversation was sniped. Others thought that they were looking too much into things. But turns out, they were right. There was indeed more to the relationship between Namor and Shuri! Scroll below to know more.

Black Panther 2 Editor Says Romance Between Namor And Shuri Was Thought Of

Namor
Namor

During an interview with Newsweek, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s editor, Michael P. Shawver, said that romance between Namor and Shuri was indeed conceived in the movie. He said:

“I think what’s really interesting is there were takes where there was some connection there…and at one point in an early cut we discussed like, ‘Hey, do we leave it there? Do we just put it out there? Let’s just add some complexity to the relationship.'”

The editor also said that:

“But, then, you’ve got to watch out for portraying, for example, Shuri flirting to get what she wants as opposed to being a diplomatic leader and becoming the leader that she needs to be, that she’ll get to at the end.”

Shuri
Shuri

The editor says that Namor and Shuri can deeply relate to each other:

“So what we ultimately focused on was Namor’s line where he says ‘only the most damaged people can be truly great leaders, and that’s planting the seed of the shared trauma that she realizes at the end [of the film]. But that’s essentially who they are, they’re trying to lead and be a leader of their nations with all this pain, carrying around this heavy heart.”

And as such this gives rise to other possibilities. As per his words:

“They relate, and I think that anytime we can relate to somebody there can be undertones of that kind of thing, you know what I mean? Honestly, we’ve got to keep ourselves sane and laugh a lot, especially with the tougher moments or the serious moments, so we would always joke that when he gave her that bracelet they were married now, and she didn’t know it. There’s a whole different movie where [Shuri’s] like, ‘wait, what, I’m the queen of Talokan now?'”

At the end, Shawver mentioned that the romance element was filmed and then tested with a test audience group. But those scenes ultimately ended up getting scrapped.

Black Panther 2 Production Designer Refutes Romance Allegations Between The Two

Shuri as the new Black Panther
Shuri as the new Black Panther

But Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s production designer, Hannah Beachler says the opposite of Shawver. She says that they never filmed any romantic scenes with Letitia Wright (Shuri) and Tenoch Huerta (Namor).

She tweeted out that:

“Just to be clear I say this because I was literally there, like physically literally there, for two long years on the film. So, they just didn’t film anything near a “romance” scene ever not hypothetically or literally. And never had any intentions to, ever.”

Check out her tweets below:

 

Which side of the Shuri and Namor romance debate do you fall on? Let us know in the comments below.