Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is, at its heart, a nearly three-hour tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. The actor who played T’Challa in the original 2018 Black Panther movie died suddenly in August 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer. This left filmmaker Ryan Coogler and his cast with the challenge of honoring his memory while telling a successful story. Spoilers follow!
Wakanda Forever begins with Shuri (Letitia Wright) trying out ways to save her brother T’Challa from death before their mother, Ramonda (Angela Bassett) tells her that it is too late. T’Challa has died. Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole, who also worked on the first Black Panther, do not spell out what disease led to T’Challa’s death.
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Throughout the rest of the film, Coogler keeps T’Challa at the forefront of the story because his death is what drives Shuri. At first, she is relieved that her mother is alive to lead Wakanda, which allows her to focus on her vibranium technology instead of dealing with the overwhelming grief. However, this status quo is tested when Namor (Tenoch Huerta) shows up and demands Wakanda find the American scientist who has developed a vibranium detector, which could be used to uncover his underwater civilization of Talokan. When Namor threatens Wakanda’s future, Shuri has to choose between being as compassionate as her brother or as vengeful as Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).
In the first film, Killmonger had all the heart-shaped herbs incinerated. Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) did save one herb, but this was used on T’Challa to help him defeat Killmonger in the end. Shuri tried to create a synthetic heart-shaped herb to save T’Challa from death, but it did not work. Later in the film, she discovered that material from Talokan could help. She succeeded in recreating the herb, which helped her become the new Black Panther.
Wakanda Forever also includes a couple of traditional tributes. After the movie’s cold open, the purple Marvel Studios logo, featuring scenes of Boseman from Black Panther, is featured. The end credits also begin with a formal dedication message. The shot of T’Challa’s face painted on the side of a Wakandan building, prominently featured in the trailers, was included in the final cut. The film’s only end credits scene also reveals that T’Challa and Nakia had a child, whom they also named T’Challa.
After Boseman’s death, Coogler made it clear that T’Challa would not be recast. In the first episode of the Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther podcast, Coogler said he asked Boseman if he wanted to read his first script for a Black Panther sequel in their final conversation. Boseman declined to read it before the studio could make notes. Later, Coogler learned he was “too tired to read anything.” A couple of weeks later, Boseman died.
Coogler and his collaborators were initially wary about moving on without Boseman, but they eventually decided it was necessary. “He was such a part of the fabric of that character in that world because he helped us build it,” producer Nate Moore told Variety. “To deny people the ability to revisit that world didn’t sit right with anyone.”
Most of Coogler and Cole’s initial plot ideas survived, but Shuri was made the heart of the movie. They decided that the film had to center on those who would be most affected by T’Challa’s death. “Shuri had never known a day without him,” Coogler told Variety. “He’d always been there, so she would be the most unmoored by him passing away.”
