Spoilers! How ‘Wakanda Forever’ sets up a new Black Panther for Marvel’s present and future
“Black Panther” sequel honors an icon of the past, bestows the mantle on a new superhero for the present and also plants seeds for a namesake in the future.
Directed by Ryan Coogler, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (in theaters now) covers a lot of ground, paying tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman and his role of T’Challa, catching up with characters new and old, plus introducing a new foil in Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), a fan favorite from the comic books. However just as the original 2018 “Panther” offers an emotional path to understanding family legacy for T’Challa, the sequel puts a similar spotlight on his sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), while giving fans a chance to speculate where the new Black Panther might go next.
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Stop reading now if you don’t want to know, because we’re heading into spoiler territory
The movie opens with the scientifically gifted youngster trying to save her dying big bro’s life by creating a synthetic version of the heart-shaped herb that gave him extraordinary abilities as the Black Panther. (The antagonistic Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan, burned the existing plants in the first film.) He passes before she perfects it, her mom Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) takes over as Wakanda’s ruler, but a past political choice by T’Challa leads to a new enemy.
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In final battle with Namor, wearing a high-tech supersuit of her own design, Shuri opts to follow in her brother’s footsteps, sparing her enemy’s life and taking on the Black Panther name.
Let’s talk some truth: Marvel made the right call to not recast T’Challa after Boseman’s death from colon cancer in 2020 and instead expand Shuri’s role in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. She was an electric, youthful presence in the first “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War,” and now making Shuri the new Panther follows her path in the comics, elevates a talented actress in whom the superhero studio seems to have a lot of faith, and reflects T’Challa’s own important cinematic arc. (Boseman’s character also had to choose between vengeance and empathy while in mourning during “Captain America: Civil War.”)
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As the MCU explores the multiverse, introduces a new big bad in Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors) and careens toward a pair of upcoming “Avengers” movies – “The Kang Dynasty” in 2025 and “Secret Wars” a year later – this new Black Panther can be deployed in a bunch of different situations. Sure, it makes sense to make her an Avenger in a lineup that could include women like Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk and Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, but she’s more likely to play a part in an upcoming Disney+ series: “Ironheart” featuring Dominque Thorne’s teen inventor Riri Williams, who forms a sisterly bond with Shuri in her “Wakanda Forever” debut. A guest appearance from Marvel’s newest wonder woman would definitely raise the show’s profile.
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Usually, Marvel’s post-credit stingers set up what’s to come in the MCU, though this scene is obviously meant to honor Boseman’s hero and remind that his presence will long be felt in this constantly expanding world. But it also offers a question to be answered probably in the future: Will this T’Challa take up the Panther mantle? Perhaps a dozen years from now, the teenager gets the call in whatever phase Marvel’s in at that point. Or, since Marvel films frequently toy with time jumps (see: “Avengers: Endgame”) and alternate versions of heroes (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”), maybe the new kid is fast-tracked into that spot sooner rather than later.
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