‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Trailer Breakdown — Nakia Will Be the New Black Panther (Theory)
To cap off their outstanding presentation at Comic-Con, Marvel Studios released the first official trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever after a very emotional cast reunion where Chadwick Boseman’s absence was felt in the air.
Boseman tragically passed away in August 2020, leaving behind an incredible legacy, both as an actor and as a human being. This happened just a few months before Ryan Coogler was set to start production on the Black Panther sequel — since the team at Marvel Studios decided not to recast the role, Coogler had to rework the script. We now know they decided to kill off the character of T’Challa and give the Black Panther mantle to someone else (we’ll discuss who this could be in a moment).
From the outstanding two-minute teaser that we got, we can already see the movie will be a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, someone very dearly missed by the entire cast and crew over the entire production of the movie. Lupita Nyong’o even said after the panel that on the call sheets there was never a #1, as they reserved that spot for Boseman. The official synopsis for the movie released by Marvel Studios confirms that T’Challa has passed away, though it is unknown whether this will happen on-screen or off-screen. It reads:
Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
T’Challa’s death and funeral
Now that we’ve established that T’Challa will be dead once the plot is set into motion in the movie, the first question we ask ourselves is what the explanation for his death will be. His Black Panther suit would allow Ryan Coogler to open the movie with T’Challa’s on-screen death, since we never have to see his face. This would be rather easy to do using a body double, and I have to wonder if they will use this to introduce Tenoch Huerta’s Namor.
While it could be argued that it would be slightly insensitive to use T’Challa’s death as a story device to introduce the villain of the film, I believe Coogler is talented enough to make that work. In fact, even more important than his talent is his personal attachment to Boseman, and that would make me confident enough about them taking that route. The tragedy behind such opening scene, should it happen, could be used as catharsis for the audience. Opening the movie with a news program saying that T’Challa is no longer with us would be rather underwhelming and an absolute disservice to the character.
At the beginning of the trailer, we got to see a ritual or ceremony of sorts, with a large group of people dancing in white costumes. I am pretty sure we are seeing here T’Challa’s funeral — besides the dancers, we get a close-up of a livid Shuri, who, as revealed in the next shot (see above), is walking right alongside Angela Bassett’s Queen Ramonda. The nation is mourning after losing two Kings in less than ten years, and from the rest of the trailer, it looks like they won’t be able to catch a breath.
This first part of the trailer also contains a few other shots in an island setting, but we’ll get to them later.
Namor
Right after, we go underwater to see the birth of a child, who I think it’s safe to assume will be Namor. Given the amazing character Coogler gave us with Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger in the first Black Panther, I think it’s a safe bet (and the trailer indicated so) that we’ll get to see Namor’s entire backstory, being able to sympathize with him as much as we did with Killmonger. From what I gather from the trailer, it seems like the movie will explore the concept of colonization and cultural appropriation, especially the Spanish invasion of South and Central America.
The trailer also uses the Kuleshov effect later on to match two consecutive images of the same character; and since the very next image we see after the shot of the baby and the title card “from director Ryan Coogler” is our first shot of grown-up Namor, I think it’s safe to assume that was indeed the birth scene of the film’s villain. We cut to a very intriguing scene on a boat, which we’ll explore in a moment, but we also get to see later another shot of what seems to be a young Namor watching a building burn to the ground (a scene that is probably part of the movie’s focus on the Spanish colonization), followed up by a grown-up Namor emerging from the water. This shot is from behind, and my guess is that he just arrived on Talocan, the movie’s name for Atlantis.
There is a lot more Namor to discuss, but before I move on, I would like to mention briefly how the trailer already confirmed that we’ll get to see in this movie one of the most anticipated moments in years — it looks like Namor is indeed flooding Wakanda. This is something that has been on everyone’s bingo cards since Marvel set in motion their plans for a Black Panther sequel, when they had already acquired the rights to the Fox characters and some Universal-held leftovers, including the Submariner himself.
An educated guess of the plot
Even though the trailer didn’t really give away the story of the movie, and was instead a broad introduction to the tone and feel of Wakanda Forever, from the little we’ve seen and the information that has been released by Marvel so far, we can already infer the basic strokes of the plot of the movie. I should stress, though, that I am not familiar with any plot leaks for the movie, and that what follows is pure speculation based on what I’ve seen so far from the official marketing.
Whether or not he is responsible for T’Challa’s death, it’s very likely that the inciting incident of the movie will be related to Namor and the kingdom of Talocan. If it’s not T’Challa-related, it’s unclear to me at this point what the confrontation will be about, but for the sake of the discussion, let’s assume that the beginning of the movie establishes a clash between the two countries. My guess is that, after the funeral, Queen Ramonda will reach out to Nakia and discuss the Talocan situation with her. Nakia will then pull a few strings from her spy friends and eventually, catch the attention of Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross, who, after learning about an underwater country that might represent a threat to life as we know it above the surface, will orchestrate an exploration. That would correspond with the mysterious boat we see in the trailer that had soldiers going underwater, which I think will happen at the beginning of the second act.
Namor, after realizing that Wakanda essentially initiated an invasion of their country, will flood Wakanda, as seen in the trailer and depicted in the comics. Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and probably the rest of the cast, will be exiled to the island seen in the opening shot of the trailer. We know they filmed these scenes in Puerto Rico, but I’m not sure this beach will be from Puerto Rico in the movie — however, if Wakanda Forever will indeed explore the Spanish invasion, it could very well be. I’m just not sure how our characters will end up there, but I think it’s safe to assume the scenes on the beach are from the end of the second act of the movie. I also think the flooding of Wakanda will happen right before that — the villain usually takes the upper hand on our heroes during the second act, before they strike him back in the third act. It’s the basis of most fights in a Rocky movie… and most action movies in general.
There are still a few loose ends. For instance, I’m not sure what role Winston Duke’s M’Baku will play in the movie, or the Dora Milaje for that matter, besides protecting the Queen. Speaking to Collider, Duke teased that his character will have an important role to play in the new movie:
“Now we get to see how he figures out a brand-new world for Wakanda; a brand-new world like we’ve had to experience. A world post-COVID; a world post-pandemic or mid-pandemic. Much like us, he’s going through a lot of the same things and figuring out how to move forward. This movie really deals and dives into that a lot.”
Another open question is Riri Williams. If I were to guess, I think this will be a direct consequence of the ending of the first Black Panther, when T’Challa brought Shuri to California to show her the first Wakandan International Outreach Center, and knighted her as the head of the Science and Information Exchange. Since Riri Williams is from Chicago in the comics, my guess would be that she was spotted by a similar center when they started expanding nationwide — Shuri became aware of her talents, and brought her to Wakanda to act as a mentor for her. I’m not sure yet what role she will play in the movie, but it will probably be an important one.
Who is the new Black Panther?
The trailer ended with an important tease — the title of the movie actually references a character that will be in the movie. Yes, a Black Panther movie will have a Black Panther in it. Despite the horrible tragedy the loss of Chadwick Boseman represented for Marvel, the company was in a good position to transition the mantle of the character in a natural way once they decided not to recast the lead role. After all, the Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for centuries, and it’s a role that has been passed on for generations.
My guess is that the first two acts of the movie will be Black Panther-less. Ramonda, after T’Challa’s death, will be trying to convince someone to assume the mantle and protect their people. From the one shot we got in the trailer, it’s rather clear this is not M’Baku. My first instinct was that it was Killmonger (“Somehow, Killmonger has returned”), but I no longer think so (even though I do think that Michael B. Jordan will be in at least one scene in the movie, just because Ryan Coogler can’t make a movie without him). I think there are clearly only two options — either Nakia or Shuri. And I think it will be Nakia.
Shortly after Kevin Feige announced that they would not be recasting the role of T’Challa in the movie, I forecasted this situation and wrote an editorial on why Shuri should not be the new Black Panther. Not only do my points still stand, but I think the trailer made it pretty clear that she will not be. Shuri is a lab rat in the best possible sense of the word. She is not an action hero, and nor does she want to be. She is the smartest person in the MCU according to Black Panther producer Nate Moore (though I wonder if Riri Williams will take that spot soon), and the place where she will thrive is indeed making the gadgets that will save our heroes’ lives. The only time Shuri was truly happy in the trailer was when she entered the lab and after sharing a moment with Riri Williams; it seems clear that what she’s found in her is a partner in crime, not the person that will make her the gadgets to use as Black Panther.
Nakia, however, seems like a perfect candidate for the mantle. In the first movie, T’Challa tried to teach her she needed to be in Wakanda to truly protect Wakanda. It seems like a natural continuation of her arc to finally embrace her culture and people, and after being on the front line protecting her country as a spy abroad, she will now fully return home and protect it alongside the Dora Milaje and the Jabari. She is also a fighter, as opposed to Shuri, whose action scenes in Black Panther and both Avengers movies were restricted to shooting shockwaves through her vibranium gauntlets.
There is also some evidence in the marketing material supporting this claim too. An officially released poster from the movie shows our main trio in front of an image of the new Black Panther. It’s clear that this is not Chadwick Boseman’s character, as the eyes are not covered. Looking at it closely, and comparing its facial structure to that of Lupita’s and Letitia’s, it seems clear that Letitia Wright has a much narrower jaw than the Black Panther character. Lupita Nyong’o, however, perfectly matches the facial structure of the character:
Of course, this is not definitive proof that it will be Lupita, as it could still be another character. Okoye could be a valid candidate, though I think that is a long shot and Nakia’s character arc matches that trajectory better. In fact, my guess is that Ramonda tries to convince Nakia to assume the mantle shortly after T’Challa’s funeral. Nakia might be reluctant at first, both out of respect for T’Challa and because she is supposed to be a spy. But after Namor threatens to flood Wakanda out of the map, Nakia might decide it’s time for her to step up and take on her new role. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the scene where she finally decided to do it:
Once again, this is all pure speculation, and I am not basing this on any leaks, as I’ve successfully avoided all of them so far. All I know after watching the trailer is one thing — Ryan Coogler will make an extraordinary movie because he doesn’t know any other way. He is 3/3 in timeless entertainment so far, and I fully believe that on November 11, he will be 4/4. The trailer hit a record-breaking 172 million views in the first 24 hours, almost doubling the 88 million views the first Black Panther teaser got in 2017. And it deserved it because it was spectacular.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will debut in theaters on November 11. What do you think will happen? Do you agree with the theories presented here? Let us know in the comments!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
