SPOILERS AHEAD
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released earlier this month and has quickly dominated the box office, opening with $426 million worldwide. The film was by far the most anticipated marvel movie since Spiderman: No Way Home last year, due to the tragic death of actor Chadwick Boseman from cancer, who starred in the first film as King T’Challa. Marvel payed loving tribute to Chadwick throughout the entire film with the classic Marvel introduction being replaced with a silent montage of Chadwick, and fans were quick to spot the use of one of Chadwick’s most famous lines used during his acceptance speech at the SAG Awards in 2019: ‘to be young, gifted and black.’
Fortunately Marvel didn’t decide to recast the role of T’Challa and instead decided to kill off his character prior to when the film was set. Victoria Alonso, an executive at Marvel, stated that this was because “there’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us”.
The opening scene of the film features Shuri, sister of T’Challa, desperately trying to save her brother from a disease which is unknown to us as the audience, only to find out from her mother, now Queen Ramonda, that he has passed away. The rest of the film is fast forwarded to a year on from then and the nation of Wakanda is still mourning King T’Challa’s death, particularly Shuri who can’t seem to find herself after losing both T’Challa and her father, T’Chaka, so soon after each other.
The plot of the film was enticing and at times hilarious. The fascinating and satanic villain Namor, kept audience members on the edges of their seats. Though the two were on entirely different sides, the strange chemistry between Namor and Shuri was undeniable.
One of the most memorable moments during the film for me was a line delivered by Lupita Nyong'o (who played Nakia) when she said ‘“he was king and black panther to everyone, but to me, he was everything.”’ During this line, she stunned the entire audience through her simple yet beautiful delivery of this line, which made her agony and heartbreak evident, leaving not a single dry eye in sight.
Despite the films long run time (2 hours and 41 minutes) it’s a heartwarming film which allows us to finally delve deeper into the character of Shuri, played stupendously by Letita Wright, and finally gives the Scarlet Witch a worthy, upcoming co-leading Marvel lady.
