The 2018 blockbuster Black Panther marked several milestones for Marvel and the whole MCU in ways that would be hard to follow, not least being its wide-ranging cultural impact, its groundbreaking and game-changing opening for Black filmmakers in front of and behind the camera, its imprint on social issues and certainly the fact that it became the first so-called comic book movie adaptation ever to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. That is some legacy, and add its $1.3 billion worldwide gross and you have an obvious candidate for a blockbuster sequel. However the tragic, completely unexpected 2020 death of its star, Chadwick Boseman, of cancer at just age 43, and the whole idea of carrying the story forward without its driving onscreen force of King T’Challa would be a tall order for anyone. Fortunately for us, it is one that largely has been met with dignity, grief over unthinkable loss and a determination to do the right thing by director Ryan Coogler.
The death of the star is met in an emotionally powerful pre-credits sequence in which Boseman’s iconic character also has died — not replaced, but lionized in the hearts of Wakandans as well as artfully incorporated in the famous logo that always starts a new Marvel adventure. The action now takes place a year since his passing with Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) fully in charge, yet not fully in control of daughter Shuri (Letitia Wright), who has not been able to move ahead, her grief holding her back in unhealthy ways. Into this dynamic of a mother and daughter attempting some sort of path ahead, enter Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), a new force who believes he can convince Ramonda and Shuri he and his Talokan people who live in a previously unknown and undetected Underwater City a la Atlantis can forge an alliance. The Talokan Kingdom is a society forced to become essentially invisible due to events on the surface of the world. Could this be a match made in heaven — or hell — as Namor tries to convince the Wakandan brain trust they have much in common and he has all the answers?
The new character is an intriguing one that doesn’t fill the void left by the death of T’Challa but still adds a bit of mystery as fans will recognize him as one of the oldest in the MCU, first appearing as the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Comics #1 in 1939. He subsequently turned up either as a force for evil or good, which makes his tricky entrance into the Black Panther canon such a weirdly appropriate idea to move this franchise along without alienating the fan base. It mostly works as it puts Shuri and her technical prowess into a new position and gives Ramonda a newly enhanced importance that also gives Bassett a much more delicious role in the proceedings. First and foremost, it sets up a powerful mother/daughter, queen/princess dynamic that opens new opportunities for Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole to carve a way to move past the death of their son and brother — but not for so long that T’Challa’s presence isn’t strongly felt in key moments. But the emphasis has, in other words, moved on to the ladies.
That fortunately also includes primo Wakandan spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), who had moved on but now is needed more than ever; the leader of the Dora Milaje, Okoye (played by the irresistible Danai Gurira); another leader of Dora Milaje, Aneka (played again with style by Michaela Coel); and also the returning Florence Kasumba as Ayo. This is not to say all the male characters, other than menacing newbie Namor, take a back seat to the proceedings. There is the lively and welcome presence throughout of Winston Duke’s M’Baku as well as Martin Freeman’s returning American CIA agent Everett Ross. They add flavor, but without giving a whole lot away it is the women who provide the real sauce here, which is particularly notable in a fall that also has delivered another important female-driven warrior tale in The Woman King, one in its own way exploring that mother/daughter dynamic.
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As you watch this epic take its time to get to the main event – at 2 hours and 40 minutes, it joins the parade of overly long movies crowding multiplexes this season — the real suspense is who, if anyone, is going to emerge as the rightful new Black Panther. Without giving anything away, the answer is satisfying to a degree but clearly not one that will end with this installment (stay through the end credits, of course). New characters are introduced throughout, and there can be no doubt that Coogler has meticulously thought all of this out, while still delivering the rip-roaring action sequences and uncredited surprise appearances we expect from any Marvel movie, but especially its crown jewel.
The production values again are extraordinary, with Oscar-winning original Black Panther artisans such as Costume Designer Ruth Carter, Production Designer Hannah Beachler and composer Ludwig Goransson turning it up another notch. Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s above- and below-the-surface images are pretty breathtaking here (Talokan is dazzling). The visual effects team again delivers work certain to be recognized at the Oscars, at least until we see what James Cameron’s revisit to Avatar gives us next month. There are even characters here that might make you think you wandered into that movie for some brief moments. Rhianna’s end-title song, “Lift Me Up,” sounds all the right notes to walk out of this on a high. Producers are Kevin Feige and Nate Moore.
So is this much-anticipated sequel going to help keep Wakanda on a “forever” path? It isn’t on the see-level of the first (what could be?), but it certainly whets my appetite for what comes next. In the meantime, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever proudly remembers with love and honor both Chadwick Boseman and T’Challa.