Wakanda Forever

2022 - 11 - 10

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Slate Magazine"

The New Black Panther Responds to Chadwick Boseman's Loss ... (Slate Magazine)

The sequel is haunted by the loss of Chadwick Boseman, but it finds a different way to do something radical. By Dana Stevens. Nov 10, 2022 ...

Namor, a Mesoamerican god who gets around via tiny fluttering wings on his ankles, first appears to the queen and the princess of Wakanda in the guise of peacemaker, asking for their help in resisting the colonial superpowers that seek to rob both cultures of their resources. This overstuffed plot means that some of the film’s most emotionally powerful scenes, like an electrifying dreamworld encounter between Shuri and an unexpected figure from her past, get sandwiched between CGI-crammed battle sequences and left too little time to resonate with the audience. Especially within the superhero genre, built around the presumptive indestructibility of both its individual protagonists and its larger brand identity, the sudden and irreversible loss of a character like T’Challa is a hard blow to reabsorb into the MCU’s system. To a much greater degree than I would have thought possible, Wakanda Forever is a gajillion-dollar comic-book blockbuster about something as complex and interior as the act of female mourning, split among at least four different strong woman protagonists. Boseman’s death in mid-2020 came as a complete shock, the actor having kept his diagnosis of colon cancer secret from all but his closest loved ones. In place of the familiar Marvel intro—a comic-book–style flip-through montage of heroes from throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe—comes a somber, elegiac tribute to a single figure: the Black Panther himself, T’Challa, beloved leader of the Afrofuturistic utopia of Wakanda, as played by the late Chadwick Boseman.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's credits scene honors Chadwick ... (Vox)

Over its last few movies — Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder — Marvel has used its post-credits scenes to ...

They wanted a normal life for Toussaint, Nakia says, and the scene ends with Nakia and Shuri’s newfound nephew asking Shuri to keep their secret. Nakia introduces the boy as her son, and he tells Shuri his name is Toussaint. As Shuri is grieving, Nakia approaches her with a 6-year-old boy in tow and asks if they can grieve with her. The movie’s final scene has Shuri finally visiting Nakia and performing a Wakandan ritual in which she says goodbye to her brother. Shuri wrestles with her anger and guilt at not being able to help him. One might assume that would happen with Wakanda Forever, especially with how the movie introduced the antihero [sub-mariner](https://www.marvel.com/characters/sub-mariner) Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and the underwater city of Talokan.

Why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Has the Best End Credit ... (Gizmodo)

The new Marvel movie—starring Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, and Winston Duke—is now in theaters.

No end credits scene in Marvel Cinematic Universe history has so expertly threaded that needle of cool future implications, while also wrapping up and being a crucial addition to the story you just watched. His name is Toussaint (Divine Love Konadu-Sun) and we learn he’s the son of T’Challa and Nakia. For example, in the film we never quite learn why Nakia—T’Challa’s significant other—didn’t come to his funeral. Once the waterworks stop, the implications of the scene are huge. And yet, on top of all that, meeting the boy also provides an even warmer, more loving, and deeper conclusion to the film as a whole. What could have been a sad ending of Shuri simply mourning her losses instantly becomes cathartic and hopeful. However, those decades-away hypotheticals are not why this scene stands on the top of the MCU mountain. Picking up seconds after the film ends, we see Shuri (Letitia Wright) still crying on the beach in Haiti as she burns her funeral garb, marking the end of mourning not just for her brother, but her mother too. And yet we think Marvel’s latest film, [Black Panther: Wakanda Forever](https://gizmodo.com/black-panther-wakanda-forever-movie-review-marvel-studi-1849725648), has the best credits scene in Marvel Studios history. Nakia explains T’Challa wanted Toussaint to grow up away from the pressures of the throne which is why he remained hidden. Since the beginning, Marvel Studios has put scenes during and after its credits to keep fans in the seats and tease what’s to come. Wakanda Forever only has one end credits scene, and it’s in the middle.

Why Disney needs "Wakanda Forever" (Axios)

Why it matters: The “Black Panther” sequel is the final Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) release for the year — marking one of the last opportunities left for ...

over three days, surpassing “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” record from 2013, according to [Box Office Pro](https://www.boxofficepro.com/weekend-box-office-forecast-black-panther-wakanda-forever-targets-november-record-could-it-rival-multiverse-for-2022s-best-opening/). [How the MCU is addressing its messy history with diversity](https://www.axios.com/marvel-cinematic-universe-diversity) [Marvel promoted "Wakanda Forever" on its own](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/09/black-panther-wakanda-forever-podcast-marvel-promotion) [Movie theaters suffering from Hollywood’s slow summer](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/19/movie-theaters-suffering-from-hollywoods-slow-summer) [Chadwick Boseman](https://www.axios.com/2020/08/29/chadwick-boseman-black-panther-dies-cancer), reception of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will be critical to the future of the franchise. [writes](https://www.boxofficepro.com/weekend-box-office-forecast-black-panther-wakanda-forever-targets-november-record-could-it-rival-multiverse-for-2022s-best-opening/). [Axios analysis](https://www.axios.com/2022/11/10/marvel-cinematic-universe-diversity)found that “Black Panther” was a tipping point for the MCU to finally reflect the diversity of its real-world fans. [slow summer](https://www.axios.com/2022/08/19/movie-theaters-suffering-from-hollywoods-slow-summer).

How 'Wakanda Forever' producer pushed for Black heroes (Los Angeles Times)

Nate Moore pushed for Black Panther's introduction in "Captain America: Civil War." His latest, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," seeks closure after ...

The cultural resonance of the first “Black Panther” was a major reason for them to go ahead, despite the monumental challenges. Feige was eager to adapt the sprawling “Civil War” storyline from the comics, presenting a challenge because Marvel Studios didn’t have the rights to many of the characters in that saga. His favorite film was “The Goonies,” which he related to as a bored kid in Clovis hanging out with his three siblings. “He is a talented storyteller with fantastic instincts, and he’s also a perceptive and compassionate person who showed up for our filmmakers and cast on this film in a way that goes far beyond the expectations of any producer.” He remembered Black Panther from the comics of his childhood, how the character stood apart from Marvel’s brightly colored palette because of his stark black outfit, his lone wolf demeanor and his connection to his homeland. They hired Boseman while he was promoting the James Brown biopic “Get on Up.” But would Black Panther stand out in a movie with a multitude of established characters, including Ant-Man and (through a deal with Sony Pictures) Spider-Man? But while some of the recent movies have left fans divided, the studio has remained a financial juggernaut, with “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” grossing $956 million in ticket sales and “Thor: Love and Thunder” taking in more than $760 million. In “Wakanda Forever,” though, it’s the emotional beats and moments of closure, anchored by the performances of Angela Bassett and Letitia Wright, that resonate most. [a streaming series set in the world of Wakanda](https://ew.com/tv/wakanda-disney-plus-series-black-panther-ryan-coogler/). “Wakanda Forever” director Ryan Coogler credited Moore with pushing for the introduction of more Black characters, including Falcon (a.k.a. And it sets up a new character for an upcoming Disney+ show (“Ironheart”). When he got a little older, he absorbed obscure superhero lore by digging through the character bios of a Marvel role playing game he found at a B.

'Wakanda Forever' Forges International Alliances on a Somber ... (The New York Times)

Rihanna, Burna Boy, Snow Tha Product and Stormzy perform songs from and inspired by the second “Black Panther” movie.

“La Vida” (“The Life”), sung and rapped in Spanish and English by Snow Tha Product, is a declaration of Indigenous pride that adds a dancehall undertow to the harp arpeggios of traditional Mexican son jarocho. [“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,”](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/movies/black-panther-wakanda-forever-review.html) adds another culture to the mix: an undersea realm ruled by Marvel’s long-running character Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Near the end, the album breaks into a major key. He favors foreboding minor chords and orchestral depths, a backdrop that brings out the most desolate sentiments of his collaborators. While the song is a careful international alliance, nothing upstages Rihanna. On the screen, that has meant inventing Wakanda as a disciplined, high-tech African nation.