Shea Couleé Joins The MCU In A Mysterious New Role, Werk!

The Drag Race fan-fave has been confirmed as a series regular on the upcoming Ironheart series.
Shea Couleé might have just barely missed snatching the Drag Race All Stars 7 crown, but it seems she may have scored an even better gig. Shea is making the move from super queen to superhero — or is it supervillain? We can’t say for sure since the details are still under wraps, but Entertainment Weekly reports that the fan-fave Drag Race star is headed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (purse first?) in a super-secret role, as a series regular in the upcoming Ironheart show.
Ironheart focuses on the character of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a genius inventor who follows in the footsteps of Ironman by creating her own armor suit. Fans got a brief sneak peek at the character in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer that dropped in July.
While it hasn’t been confirmed, there’s speculation that Shea could be taking on the role of Darkveil, a character created by Sina Grace that was inspired by drag queens, including Shea herself.
“ Darkveil (formerly Shade) was inspired by so many drag queens , but I’ve kinda been officially quoted as saying that Shea Couleé, Dax Exclamation Point, The Vixen, and Monét X Change were my main go-to’s,” Grace told World of Wonder in 2019. “I just wondered what my sister’s friend Jomar would look like as a superhero, cuz he was the first ‘gay person’ I’d really gotten to know as a kid, and had the body of a man who wasn’t ‘fit,’ wasn’t ‘fat,’ which I felt was super important to put on the page. Like, I love some Naomi Smalls, but I wanted a full-bodied queen. I designed the outfit thinking, ‘what kind of iconic would she serve at an X-Men -sponsored event? Pouches, X-belts galore!’”
While fans will get to meet Riri in
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
when the film premieres November 11, the wait for the
Ironheart
series is quite a bit longer. Currently, the release is slated for fall 2023. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long for more details about Shea’s mysterious character.
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