Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

To say that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had impossibly big shoes (cat shoes?) to fill following Ryan Coogler’s 2018 outing would be an understatement.  The first Black Panther was the rare Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) entry that—gasp—felt original.  Coogler was one of the few directors to put his stamp on an MCU film, with its cultural specificity, a genuine sense of wonder, prioritizing of the intimate over the bombastic (mostly), and arguably the greatest villain the 20-year old franchise has yet produced. Few other Marvel films and directors have come close, though one could make an argument for Taiki Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, with its irreverence and genuine fun. (This is also where we pour one out for the Edgar Wright Ant-Man project that never came to fruition.) Further complicating matters was the untimely passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 from colon cancer, which sent shockwaves of grief through Hollywood and beyond.  Despite all these challenges, Coogler’s return to Wakanda is largely successful and will likely be one of the more enduring MCU outings.

It spoils nothing to say that the film immediately tackles the elephant, or panther, in the room. Kevin Feige and Disney smartly made the decision not to recast Boseman’s role—there can only be one T’Challa.  To recast it would’ve prompted inevitable, and likely unfair, comparisons.  And thank God they didn’t go the Peter Cushing route and have a soulless CGI Boseman stalking through the film, giving all the children in the audience nightmares. No, Wakanda Forever immediately addresses the death of T’Challa’s character offscreen, and the grief on Shuri’s (Letitia Wright) face is bracing and real. 

From there, the movie goes into somewhat standard MCU sequel territory, albeit with Coogler’s deft touch.  A new villain is introduced in the form of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), whose backstory and homeland bear more than a few resemblances to Shuri’s upbringing and Wakanda.  Familiar faces pop up, including the world’s friendliest CIA agent, Everett Ross (Martin Freeman, still miscast). Supporting roles from the first film have now been expanded into meatier roles, and the actors more than rise to the occasion.  Danai Gurira’s Okoye is still the most badass female, which is saying something in a cast stacked with badass females.  This time around, audiences get a glimpse into her vulnerability, and her banter with Shuri is also a recurring delight.  Inarguably the most powerful supporting role goes to Angela Bassett, whose Ramonda has now been forced into the role of queen and whose grief and righteous rage threaten to leap off the screen in every scene. 

As the film barrels along, Coogler dabbles in the obligatory MCU world-building, primarily in the form of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, aka Ironheart.  This role is definitely a crowdpleaser, with the character’s fierce intelligence, quick wit, and Iron Man-style action sequences.  She seems to have been shoehorned into the plot though with the sole intention of introducing her ahead of her sole Disney+ series—without going into specifics, her reason for being in the film at all is tenuous at best and doesn’t hold up to even slight scrutiny.  She does have some nice interplay with both Okoye and Shuri though, and her scenes go by effortlessly.

Two smart choices keep the film from completely sagging under its obligations to the wider MCU, as with most entries (Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, cough). First, the filmmakers boldly take their time crowning a new Black Panther.  Think back to how long it took Twin Peaks: The Return to reveal the Dale Cooper you know and love, and you’ll have some idea.  For much of the running time, the women (and men, as with Winston Duke’s M’Baka, invaluable) struggle to fill the void. With Killmonger having burnt up all the heart-shaped herb at the end of the last film, they are unable to produce a new champion.  As such, they’re forced to become the new defenders of Wakanda, and their action scenes have a crackling physicality, with real stakes—there’s no superhuman healing or agility to fall back on.

This choice also acts as an interesting referendum on Chadwick Boseman’s performance. As tragic and awful as his loss is, his absence actually doesn’t impact the story as dramatically as expected.  His performance was rather understated, with a low-burning intensity.  And indeed one of his character’s defining traits was his willingness to seek counsel and to surround himself with badass women.  So when those women take the stage in this sequel, it feels like a natural progression.

The other smart decision was pitting yet another morally ambiguous ‘villain’ against the Wakandans.  Namor is not an overtly malicious character; he’s simply trying to keep his people, the Talokanil, safe.  T’Challa’s actions at the end of the first film have now brought Namor’s undersea kingdom in direct conflict with Wakanda.  This adds some morally ambiguous shading to the action scenes, as they essentially consist of two indigenous tribes fighting each other, with no clear moral superiority. (Namor, of course, has slightly more extreme tactics, giving the Wakandans the faintest whiff of moral superiority.) In the screening I attended, people cheered and whooped whenever one of Namor’s tribesmen were defeated, which made me more than a little uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, because this is Marvel, the subtlety and ambiguity only go so far.  The eventual victor is preordained and so saps the movie of any feigned dramatic tension. With the conclusion foregone, the pleasures lie in the stops taken along the way. The visual delight in seeing the underwater kingdom of Talokan, with its Aztec-inspired aesthetic, may remind some of what it was like to see Wakanda for the first time.  Also unsurprising is the eventual heir to the Wakandan throne.  There the fun lies in how different their approach is from T’Challa’s—this is not the Black Panther you came to know and love in the previous film.  Lastly, literally any frame in which Huerta is onscreen is a delight, as his physical performance speaks volumes and he consistently brings out the best in his scene partners.

These touches help elevate the movie and make up for the standard Marvel elements, including the usual third act CGI-enhanced mayhem (though at least this time around, the chaos is brightly lit and easy to follow, unlike the previous film’s train tunnel slugfest). Namor is an exciting character to add to the MCU, and it’ll be interesting to see how his role eventually, inevitably, expands in future films. And despite an end-credits scene that feels like a significant misstep and out of keeping with the rest of the film (though, interestingly, it was originally intended to be the film’s A-plot before Boseman’s passing), Wakanda Forever is ultimately an above-average Marvel entry that should have interesting ramifications for future outings.