Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Petra Němcová

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) is a movie from MCU and a sequel to Black Panther (2018). The main character of the first Black Panther was Black Panther played Chadwick Boseman, who appeared already in Captain Amerika: Civil War (2016) and then also in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and series What If...? (2021).

Many fans couldn't imagine what the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would be like without Chadwick Boseman who sadly passed away on August 28, 2020 after suffering from colon-cancer. When
Chadwick was asked back in 2019 on the red carpet of Cinema Con about his future with MCU, he kept avoiding an answer to avoid spoilers. He always repeated only with one sentence.

Interviewer: People are ready to see this movie. They're buying the tickets, it's nuts. I mean,
how does that feel to know that they love this film so much?
Chadwick: It's great, but I'm dead, so I can't answer any questions about that.
Interviewer: Ok, so you don't wanna give us any spoiler or anything like that.
Chadwick: I'm dead.
Interviewer: What about Black Panther 2... anything?
Chadwick: I'm dead.
Interviewer: Noooo. We're not ready for you to be dead, Chadwick.
Chadwick: But I am. I'm dead.

Even though he was talking about his character who was "dead" by that time, many people posted videos and posts out of context, so it came out looking like he was talking about himself. But when you take a better look on interviewers last question, she didn't said "we're not ready for your character to be dead, Chadwick", she only said Chadwick. So how did she understood it? I guess we ̈ll never find out.

But let's get back to the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Who played the Black Panther, when his actor has died? Well, it's actually not that complicated. The new Black Panther is Shuri, played by Letita Wright, T'Challa's younger sister. Why haven't they just replaced the actor? To honor of Chadwick Boseman, because he was simply irrepleceable and T'Challa wasn't just the Black Panther, protector of Wakanda, he was also the king of Wakanda. We also got a new character. And that is Riri Williams, aka Iron Heart, played by Dominique Thorn, who is not related to Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. He just inspired her. This whole movie is very sad and one could say it's in memory of Chadwick.

If you will watch the movie really carefully, you will be able to see a lot of easter eggs to honor of
Chadwick Boseman, as are for example texts in wakandian everywhere during the film. For example around his portrait on the wall translated as: The Panther King forever lives in us forever, or on the pillars that are Dora Milaje standing between: In power T'challa our hero and honor forever. Or even better hidden easter egg as was the date of Chadwick's birth on the car's license plate.