Marvel fans are finally getting closer to the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever movie, one of the highest anticipated sequels this year.
Trailers have been dropping, there is more information we are getting regarding the shoot and behind the scenes of the film through its cast members.
Ryan Coogler, who directed the first Black Panther movie in 2018, is coming back for this follow-up as well.
Black Panther was critically-acclaimed and loved by the fans, also went to get Oscar nomations at Aademy awards as well, and earned more than $1.2 billion at box office.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Trailers
The official teaser, the very first look on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made its debut at San Diego Comic-Con in month July.
It was a two-minute teaser-trailer also released on Youtube covering Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” track showing the aftermath of King T’Challa’s death and Wakandians mourning.
The teaser-trailer itself felt like giving a homage or paying respects to the late actor Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther.
With a sad and mourning vibe to the teaser, it showed how Wakandians trying to stick together, Bassett’s Queen Ramonda taking the throne, and claiming amongst the very few words spoken on the teaser “ I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world and my entire family is gone” and followed by another emotional punch “ Have I not given everything?”.
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Plot
Like any other Marvel movies, we know very little about the plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and that is even more surprising because the film is going to be out in a few months only.
So, far from the trailers, the very first thing that can be assured is that Wakanda is mourning for King T’Challa aka Black Panther.
Queen Ramonda, seems to be sitting on the throne of Wakanda. And apparently the mantle of Black Panther as superhero goes on where someone else is wearing the suit.
We also see that since there is no King in Wakanda or because their kingdom has become weak, people from outerworld are trying to take advantage of the Wakandian tech and resources.
And this sequel also seems to be debuting one of the important characters in Marvel, Namor who is shown in the trailers as well.
There must be a brewing war or some kind of conflict between Wakanda and the underwater kingdom of Talcon ruled by Namor. And we’re yet to see why it is that.
Thanks to Production Weekly, we knew about this debut due to their early plot release which reads:
“Both Wakanda and Atlantis are hidden civilisations with advanced technology and increased militaristic abilities that decided to separate themselves from the rest of the world for their own safety, and in a way, out of fear. Wakanda feared that their technology would be abused. Atlantis feared that surface dwellers would come and desecrate the mythical city just as they did so many years ago. And yet their fears escalate even further when these two once-hidden nations clash with each other.”
The Official synopsis of the movie Wakanda Forever from Marvel studios, says something like this :
“In Marvel Studios’ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.”
What more about the plot of the movie we can gain, is from an exclusive footage released in D23 2022, where a battle between Namor and M’ Baku is shown, so clearly a war between them.
Then, Queen Ramonda seems to be dealing a lot with all the protection and national interest of Wakand, and people’s attempts to take away Vibranium from their kingdom.
There is also footage, somewhat a glimpse also, we see in the teaser where people are trying to steal Vibranium by invading Wakanda, and then native people try to stop them.
We might even see a new Black Panther there, it might be Shuri behind the mask taking up the mantle and protecting the kingdom.
Kevin Fiege, the President at Marvel Studios also revealed that Black Panther will be ending the Phase 4 of the Marvel. Even though that is something but doesn’t necessarily give any much detail about the plot of the film.
What we can expect is that after Wakanda Forever, we will have a new threat to the overall Marvel cinematic universe, a different central theme or enemy, which we all know is Kang the conqueror, started looming and will be until they appear in later phases.
Another talk regarding the film is the debut of Riri Williams which is under the wraps right now, but one thing is sure, that her debut in this movie will further extend to her Disney+ show Ironheart.
The exlusive footage shown at D23 2022 event regarding Ironheart revealed Riri hamering a heart out of some kind of metal, might remind you of Tony Stark’s iconic hammer bashing to create his suit in a cave.
Then, it also reveals her in a some sort of flying suit, which might be her first suit as Iron Heart. Also, it shows Shuri and Okaye together visiting her at MIT.
So, there is clearly a chance that Riri will make her debut in the MCU in Wakanda Forever, and then on her Disney+ show Ironheart, Shuri and Okoye might also make their appearance too.
Clealry plot of the film will include the mourning of the character T’Challa to adjust the actual demise of beloved Chadwick Boseman, the actor who played T’Challa in earlier MCU movies.
Kevin Fiege mentioned that this film honors him, he said It’s clearly very emotional without Chad. But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.”
He also talked about he wanted to explore the history of Wakanda in this sequel, so there might be some flashbacks or background story to see in this fim.
He told this to Entertainment Weekly “Towards the end of the movie, T’Challa takes the herb again and encounters his father, where he’s like, ‘Hey, man. We’ve kind of screwed up, and I want to change it’,”
He further aded “There’s that moment where all of the ancestors come behind T’Chaka. We would joke and go, ‘I want to see… what’s their story? What’s that story? Who was Bashenga, the first king of Wakanda? Who’s that third to the left, behind T’Chaka? What was their story in Wakanda in 1938? That would be cool’.”
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Cast
The biggest and obvious change in the Black Panther 2 cast is the tragic demise of Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020.
This means Marvel had to either recast T’Challa where some other actor will continue playing his character replacing Chadwick Boseman, something similar to Edward Norton replaced by Mark Ruffalo as Hulk.
But Marvel didn’t go with this route, they did not jus re-cast a new actor for T’Challa rather decided to say goodbye to the character as well in the movie.
Kevin Fiege was clear about the fact that there won’t be recasting or digital double in the sequel movie.
Marvel Studios’s EVP Victoria Alonso said “There’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us. Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to history and what we do to honour this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
Kevin Fiege also confirmed “Wakanda is a place to further explore with characters and different subcultures. This was always and initially the primary focus of the next story. We’re not going to have a CG Chadwick and we’re not recasting T’Challa.”
Only Black Panther’s mantle, his suit and everything will be helmed by a new successor, and they integrated the demise of Boseman as the demise of T’Challa in this new sequel as a plot point.
Apart from that, Letitia Wright will be reprising her role as younger sister of T’challa, named Shuri which we have seen in Black Panther and Infinity War as well.
Romanda, T’Challa’s mother who is now Queen Romanda of Wakanda, is played by the same actor Angela Basetta.
Winston Duke also makes his return as M’Baku whereas Kasumba also returns as Dora Milaeja warrior Ayo.
Martin Freeman who is mostly seen quite briefly in the MCU movies is also repirsing his role as Everett Ross, and might have more to do in this sequel.
Daniel Kaluuya, however won’t be coming back to this film due to the scheduling clash with a sci-fi horor film Nope directed by Jordan Peele.
There are also additions to the cast as well such as Dominique Thorne will be playing Riri Williams, who is also getting her own Disney+ series Ironheart but making debut in MCU with this movie. Riri is basically a genius who created her own Iron man kind of suit.
Another addition will be Michaela Coel known for I May Destroy You, playing a character name Aneka, who is basically a leader of Dora Milaje in comics.
She can be seen in the trailer in a battle against Namor who is played by another new cast Tenoch Huerta joining here.
Someone who is most likely not coming back for this movie is Michael B Jordan who played Killmonger in the previous Black Panther movie.
He was asked about his return in Wakanda Forever as Killmonger, in which he said “It’s a character in a world that I love so much,””Who knows? As we all know, Marvel has their plans and their things and, you know, how things are gonna shake out.”
But most likely he is not coming back for this sequel at least, he might show up in future projects.
One of the burning questions regarding Black Panther sequel is who is under the suit, shown in the teaser as well.
Danny Sapani will also going to reprise his role as M’Kathu, a border tribe elder who said the experience of shooting the film was amazing.
He also shared “Obviously, without Chad it’s very different,” he said. “But we’re gonna keep flying that flag, keep trying to tell that story because it’s just an incredible story and an incredible film.”
The actor further talked about the comparison drawn between the first and second Black Panther film, saying “I think we’re just going to keep telling the story and honouring the great man. All of the people that are involved with that project are very close. I think it makes for a great sort of company feel. So, I imagine it’s going to blow everyone away in the way the first one did.”
What we defintely know so far that Mavel clarified that they are not replacing Chadwick Boseman, so there won’be some additional cast member as Black Panther.
With all this speculation going on, recently as per the new Lego set release, the new Wakanda Forever Black Panther suit might have revealed the person under it.
As per a fan site called The Brick Fan, these new Lego sets will be released in October where Shuri is wearing the Black Panther costume with gold accents that we saw in the teaser.
That suit in the Lego set is named as Shuri’s Sunbird and is accompanied by Riri William’s Ironheart, evil Attuma and Nakia.
So that means, Shuri, T’Challa’s sister who is a genius, even more than Tony Stark is going to be the new Black Panther.
In short, here’s ensemble cast for Wakanda Forever :
- Letitia Wright
- Winston Duke
- Lupita Nyong’o
- Angela Bassett
- Danny Sapani
- Martin Freeman
- Riri Williams
- Michaela Coel
- Tenoch Huerta
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Release Date
Black Panther Wakanda Forever is going to hit the theatres this November 11, 2022. This sequel is releasing after the four years of releasing the first Black Panther film in 2018.
As Fiege said, this film will be ending Phase V for Marvel, so that’s something.
Also, since we are getting a new Black Panther, it will be interesting to see how this new hero is going to integrate with Avengers.
The film was originally set to release in May 2022 but due to the pandemic, along with lot of Marvel movies, this one was delayed as well.
Sources: Digital spy | Twitter | The Brick Fan | The Hollywood Reporter | Digital Spy | Production Weekly | Entertainment Weekly Featured Image Source: Boomplay