'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' Gets Streaming Release Date

By Daniel S. Levine

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still reeling in millions at the box office, but it will soon be available to stream on Disney+. The Walt Disney Company announced that Wakanda Forever will be available on its streaming platform starting Wednesday, Feb. 1. Disney+ is also home to most of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe epics, including the first Black Panther movie.

Wakanda Forever opened in theaters on Nov. 11, so it was granted an 82-day window before heading to streaming. It will also be available in "IMAX Enhanced" mode, so fans can watch the film in the expanded aspect ratio seen in IMAX theaters. Disney has not announced the release date for the Blu-ray.

The movie is set mostly after the death of T'Challa, who was played by the late Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther and the Avengers movies. Letitia Wright took over the lead role as T'Challa's sister, Shuri, who dedicates herself to technology while grieving her brother's death. When Wakanda is threatened by Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia), the king of Talokan, Shuri is thrust into a leadership role at a time of crisis. Ryan Coogler returned as director and wrote the script with Joe Robert Cole.

The cast also features Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Florence Kasumba, and Angela Bassett reprising their roles from Black Panther. Dominique Thorne was introduced as Riri Williams, an MIT student who builds armor similar to Iron Man's. Thorne will reprise the role in the upcoming Disney+ series Ironheart and is expected to be involved in the Don Cheadle-starring Armor Wars. Michaela Coel joined the cast as Aneka, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus returned as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the mysterious new CIA director introduced in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Although Wakanda Forever hasn't quite lit up the box office as the original Black Panther did, it still earned over $821.7 million globally and is still playing in some theaters. It is the second-highest-grossing movie of the year domestically so far, behind only Top Gun: Maverick. Bassett earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. "Lift Me Up" – written by Rihanna, Tems, Coogler, and Ludwig Goransson – was nominated for Best Original Song.

The movie includes several tributes to Boseman throughout, beginning with a purple Marvel Studios logo that features footage from Black Panther. The actor died in August 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer. Boseman was 43. 

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