Reflections on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

In 2016, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) introduced us to the Black Panther character in Captain America: Civil War and they fully introduced us to the kingdom of Wakanda in 2018's Black Panther. This past weekend, we got to return in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, this time without actor Chadwick Boseman, who sadly passed in 2020. In this installment of the series, we like the characters in the movie grapple with Boseman's loss, while introducing some new characters to the MCU. These are my reflections on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Chadwick Boseman Still Looms Large

When Chadwick Boseman died, we weren't sure what would become of the juggernaut we all know as the Black Panther franchise. We weren't sure if they'd replace Boseman with another actor to play T'Challa, or move forward without him. Now it's clear that the MCU chose the latter approach. Even with Boseman gone, his presence is still felt from the opening to the closing credits. The film is literally a tribute to the late actor, who helped bring the Black Panther character to the big screen. The film heavily focuses on dealing with grief, so proceed with caution if you are easily triggered by this type of material. Even still, I believe it is done in a beautiful way, where we can see the characters go through the gamut of emotions, from sorrow to full-blown rage, but still move forward out of necessity.

Black Women Drive the Plot

One of the notable things about this movie is that with regard to the plot, black women are completely in the driver's seat. That is notable because woman-led action movies are not very common and black women-led ones are virtually nonexistent, especially ones with a budget as large as Black Panther. In this film, we see black women rule kingdoms, invent ironman level technology, and of course...kick lots of ass. Some of the characters, like Queen Ramonda (played by Angela Bassett), Princess Shuri (played by Letitia Wright), Okoye (played by Danai Gurira), and Nakia (played by Lupita Nyong'o) we have become familiar with from previous the previous Black Panther, but this film introduces us to some new ones like Riri/Ironheart (played by Dominique Thorne) and Aneka (played by Michaela Coel). So if you have been wondering what type of Marvel magic would result from a movie that centered around black girl magic, this film is your chance.

There Were Lots of Subtle Things in the Film

I also noticed that this film was in addition to being an overtly black movie about a fictitious African kingdom, there were noticeable ties to historical things sprinkled throughout it without being harped on. For instance, the theme of this movie centers around the historical colonization of black and brown people, which causes them to end up fighting one another, instead of the colonizing nations (apparently this works the same in the MCU as it does in the real world). Also, at the end of the film, we are introduced to a character in Haiti named Toussaint, which is the name of one of the leaders of the Haitian revolution. There were a few other things that the film wanted us to know, like Riri being from Chicago and Aneka being in a queer relationship, which was sprinkled in the movie, but not harped on. Even more subtle, was the possible sexual chemistry between Shuri and Riri, which was never explicitly acknowledged in the movie, but noted by a number of fans.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this installment of the Black Panther series. It allowed us to fully process the loss of Chadwick Boesman's iconic role as T'Challa while introducing us to new characters in the MCU. It also normalized things like black excellence, black royalty, black inventors, black queerness, and black determination. I highly recommend you check out the movie and feel free to let me what you think.