The future of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” appeared to be uncertain. It should have been a sure thing since it was a follow-up to one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s biggest hits, and director Ryan Coogler was back in charge. But after the terrible death of its actor Chadwick Boseman, the movie found itself without a clear hero. By announcing that Chadwick Boseman’s role as T’Challa wouldn’t be recast, Marvel Studios made a wise decision. The critical issue, therefore, became how the movie would handle his absence.
As per the first “Wakanda Forever” trailer, which debuted on Saturday at Comic-Con, T’Challa’s absence is very much the core of the film. The teaser, which explores themes of loss, joy, and hope, does not disclose who will succeed T’Challa as the Black Panther, but it does emphasize the power of his friends, family, and allies. It also serves as a reminder of how strong the supporting cast of the very first “Black Panther” film was. There are a lot of deserving contenders who might succeed Black Panther when Wakanda fights Namor.
Here is Black Panther Wakanda Forever Trailer Breakdown:
Black Panther Wakanda Forever Trailer Breakdown
The very first character shown in the “Wakanda Forever” trailer is Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia. While we won’t spend much time speculating about who the next Black Panther would be, Nyong’o has proven her abilities as a leading lady in films like “Queen of Katwe,” “Us,” and “12 Years a Slave.”
Nakia is a War Dog, one of Wakanda’s highly skilled spies who serves the nation by completing secret intelligence operations on other people’s territory. In this trailer, she can be seen lying on a beach with a Mesoamerican pyramid in the distance. Since Huerta’s Namor in this adaptation has a Mayan heritage, Nakia might be on a diplomatic mission or doing reconnaissance on him.
T’Challa assumed the Black Panther title while his father, T’Chaka, was still king, even though it is common for the Black Panther and the emperor of Wakanda to be the same person. The “Wakanda Forever” trailer provides an immediate response to the question of who currently holds the throne, revealing Queen Ramonda as the nation’s ruler. Ramonda is bearing a heavy load while still grieving because Wakanda no longer has the same level of secrecy that it previously did.
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Mourning The King
The calm and understated nature of this trailer is what I find most intriguing. For the first minute, there is no dialogue; instead, the mood is set by the music, a cover of “No Woman, No Cry,” which changes into Kendrick Lamar’s “Be Alright” midway through. The first conversation starts as Ramonda enters the scene: “I am the ruler of the most powerful country in the world, yet my family is nowhere to be found! Have I not done my best?” The last words of this speech are spoken over a close-up of T’Challa’s mural, which is subtitled, “The king and the panther… live forever in us.”
From the teaser, two things are clear. One: T’Challa, and by extension, Chadwick Boseman, are honored in this movie. Second, “Wakanda Forever” is an ensemble film rather than focusing on having to find a single person who can fill his shoes. It shows how each member of the supporting cast from the last movie is coping with the void in their lives. To put it another way, Wakanda itself serves as the main character and shows a country that is mourning the loss of its king just as the “Black Panther” cast and crew are mourning the loss of their star.
Funeral For The King
Despite the quiet moments of sadness in the trailer, we also catch a glimpse of a Wakandan burial that appears to be a joyful celebration of T’Challa’s life. The dancers are cheerful and wear white attire. There are several traditional dances done across Africa that serve as an expression of mourning in various cultures around the world, such as the mutu dances of the Kenga people.
The head of the Nana Otafrija pallbearers in Ghana, Benjamin Aidoo, whose “coffin dance” went viral in the first few months of 2020, has said that when his group is hired to take a loved one to their final resting place, “Most people adore the performance since they want to be happy.” Instead of focusing on the person’s absence, the singing and dancing are a celebration of “the life that she or he spent before dying.”
The Dora Milaje
Wakanda may have the Black Panther as its protector, but the Dora Milaje are Wakanda’s own set of guardians. The Black Panther’s bodyguards are an all-female squad of skilled warriors under the command of Okoye. Okoye, who has dedicated her life to safeguarding the life of Wakanda’s resident superhero, was heartbroken when it seemed that T’Challa had passed away in first Black Panther movie, and we can expect that; she will be equally moved by his passing in “Wakanda Forever.”
Okoye is another excellent candidate to assume T’Challa’s former position because she is one of Wakanda’s most fearsome warriors and is well suited to take the responsibilities of a Black Panther. A spinoff show about Okoye’s origins was said to be in development for Disney+ last year.
Namor And Atlantis
T’Challa recognizing that Wakanda’s isolationism was a thing of the past and guiding his country to a less exclusive future was a crucial outcome of the first “Black Panther” movie. It makes sense that the sequel will also include new people from the outer world. The trailer begins with a couple welcoming a newborn child into their home around the 50-second mark. Based on the wings gracing his feet, that baby is Namor, the Submariner.
Namor and the Atlanteans are shown in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” as having ties to Mayan culture. One aspect of the Atlanteans that is true to the comics is their skin color; while Namor closely resembles a human, many other Atlanteans, like his cousin Namora, have blue skin. According to the comics, Namor is the offspring of Princess Fen of Atlantis and Leonard McKenzie, a human father. While some of Namor’s followers see him as an outsider, he solely embraces his Atlantean background.
A War Between Nations
Namor has a history of being unfriendly to the surface world in comic books, especially when humans pollute his territory. The original “Black Panther” was among the most openly political Marvel films, so the possibility of environmental themes in this one is possible. His nation appears to be preparing for war with Wakanda, as seen by shots of a Wakandan city flooding and scenes of both Dora Milaje and Winston Duke’s M’Baku fighting Atlanteans. However, it’s also possible that Wakanda only stands in the way of Namor’s vengeance against the rest of the surface world.
One scene in particular, which depicts a young Namor standing amongst blue-skinned Atlanteans and looking at a burning building, raises the possibility that the battle may have its roots in a long-existing hatred. Namor’s name means “avenging son” in comic books, therefore, it’s possible that the event shown here is his parents’ death. However, given that Killmonger was seeking retribution for his father’s death at the hands of T’Chaka, that would seem somewhat repetitive. It is more likely that the battle starts as a result of the surface-dwellers invading Namor’s territory based on the shot where Wakandans are driving a ship out at sea with two people dressed in deep-sea diving suits, about to dive into the water.
Even if Wakanda doesn’t have any coastlines, Namor can still attack it. Due to its location near the northern tip of Lake Turkana, the nation is at risk of attack from the Atlantean underwater warriors. In a scene of Namor rising from the ocean, Namora and a number of other Atlantean warriors are shown gathering at a Wakandan lakeside market, where they engage in a fight with M’Baku’s warriors at another point in the trailer. On the surface, the blue-skinned Atlanteans are required to wear a special breathing mask, but Namor can breathe on land and in the ocean without any assistance, thanks to his half-human genetic structure.
Riri Williams
It appears that the fight will reach Wakanda’s throne room, the nation’s very center. Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister, is seen in one stunning scene of the trailer standing on the royal platform while being surrounded by flame and water. Shuri’s lone presence in front of the throne has significant implications because she would succeed Ramonda if she dies during the course of the movie. Shuri is now in charge of Wakanda’s elite technology development team, and being queen would prevent her from innovating. However, elsewhere in the video, we can see a potential replacement for Shuri’s current position.
In Marvel Comics, Riri Williams is a preteen super-genius who is noticed by Tony Stark and asked to join to become his protégée because she invents an armored suit of her own. Dominique Thorne, who will play Riri in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” makes a few brief appearances in the trailer. She is first seen joyfully greeting Shuri in Wakanda’s technological hub, mirroring T’Challa’s visit to his younger sister in the first “Black Panther” movie.
Ironheart Origin
Although we don’t yet know how Riri, who comes from Chicago in the comics, ends up in Wakanda, the first movie’s ending provides one possible answer. After Killmonger’s death, T’Challa opened the first Wakandan outreach facility in Oakland, California, in the home where he was raised, as a way of honoring him and honoring his views about Wakanda withholding its secrets from the outside world. One of these outreach centers may have seen Riri’s potential and invited her to study there, choosing Shuri as her role model rather than Tony Stark.
In a particularly fascinating scene from “Wakanda Forever,” Riri Williams is seen creating her Ironheart armor. Even though she appears to be in Shuri’s lab instead of a cave, the rocky walls and labor-intensive method of hammering the metal into shape are symbolic to Tony Stark’s superhero origins. It’s nice to see Riri taking a more traditional approach because later MCU films with Iron Man used nanite technology, which took some of the magic out of his armor and made the Iron Man suit feel less real. In “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” where she made her debut appearance, Riri will take the lead in her own “Ironheart” series for Disney+.
Wakanda Against The World
According to the recently revealed synopsis for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” the film will have Shuri, Queen Ramonda, M’Baku, Okoye, and the Dora Milaje “fighting to safeguard their homeland from invading foreign forces in the wake of King T’Challa’s death.” T’Challa had wanted to strengthen ties between Wakanda and the outside world by showcasing how technologically advanced his country is, but because humans have their own selfish desires, there was always a chance that the outside world might react negatively and with fear.
There are two moments in the trailer that show that something is wrong. First is the scene in which soldiers carrying weapons attack the Wakandan spacecraft. The second scene is when Queen Ramonda is seen heading a Wakandan delegation to a UN conference. The fact that Ramonda is surrounded by representatives from other countries suggests that this is more than just a simple announcement of T’Challa’s passing (acting as a means of explaining how the Wakandan king passed away to the audience).
There are two moments in the trailer that show that something is wrong. First is the scene in which soldiers carrying weapons attack the Wakandan spacecraft. The second scene is when Queen Ramonda is seen heading a Wakandan delegation to a UN conference. The fact that Ramonda is surrounded by representatives from other countries suggests that this is more than just a simple announcement of T’Challa’s passing (acting as a means of explaining how the Wakandan king passed away to the audience).
M’Baku
One of the highlights of “Black Panther” was Winston Duke’s dynamic performance as M’Baku; he apparently has a larger part in “Wakanda Forever.” M’Baku is the head of the Jabari Tribe of Wakanda, a group that broke off from the rest of civilization and chose to worship the gorilla god Hanuman rather than the panther god Bast.
At the start of the first Black Panther movie, M’Baku challenged T’Challa for the crown, denouncing the young king’s ideas about accepting the outside world. However, after Killmonger overthrew T’Challa and became Wakanda’s new ruler, M’Baku and the Jabari decided to form a temporary alliance in order to reinstate T’Challa as king. They later fought Thanos’ army in battle in both Infinity War and Endgame.
M’Baku is shown in the “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” trailer looking up at something with a rare expression of fear on his face as planes approach the Jabari base camp in the snowy mountains. Since the Dora Milaje are also here, it is likely that they have come to request M’Baku’s assistance in fighting the Atlanteans.
The New Black Panther
The trailer’s last scene is the most fascinating of all. It’s not clear who is wearing the Black Panther outfit with the gold highlights. Even the gender of the figure is unclear, given how little of their body is visible in the shot. This lengthens the list of suspects even further, but considering the importance of female characters in the cast of Wakanda Forever and the new Black Panther’s lean build, a woman seems to be the most possible candidate.
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