She is the daughter of T'Chaka and younger sister of T'Challa, who is the king of Wakanda and the Black Panther, an earned title and rank given to the paramount chief of the nation. As T'Challa recovers from battle wounds, Shuri is tested and found suitable for the role of Black Panther.

In 2018's Black Panther, the titular Marvel superhero and king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda has a secret weapon in his younger sister, Princess Shuri. A technical genius, Shuri is Wakanda's chief science officer, a title she prizes — but in the comics, she's taken on the mantle of the Black Panther as well.

But even though much of Black Panther’ s Wakanda is a world where black women are a vital part of life and can ascend to any position, Shuri still gets her fair share of skepticism from the men around her.

All these responsibilities, she takes on reluctantly—Shuri has always been a scientist with no aspirations for the throne or for the mantle of Black Panther. When Shuri is finally able to recreate the Heart-Shaped Herb and enters the Ancestral Plane, she is able to come to terms with her state of mind.