Marvel Studios showed up at Hall H yesterday and announced an astounding amount of news. Astounding when you consider that in a month and a half, they’ll need revelations for D23. We now know that despite what Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige once said, there will be two more Avengers movies in Phase 6, and yes, one will be the film the Russo Brothers tell everyone everywhere they want to make, Avengers: Secret Wars. If you’d been paying attention to internet gossip for a couple of days, including Kurt Busiek just happening to post news of a trade of one of his most famous works, you’d guess the other is Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.
But there’s another dynasty, maybe two, at war within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yesterday Marvel released the trailer for November 11’s Wakanda Forever. Though they showed many trailers in Hall H, this is (so far) the only one they’ve let the general public see. I have to think it’s because this one is so somber, that nothing else should follow it for a while.
Writer/director Ryan Coogler (working with writer Joe Robert Cole) returns to Wakanda to reveal a nation in mourning. This trailer seems to cover the five stages of grief. While not revealed as to what happened to the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, it’s clear that he has died. As the Black Panther is a legacy passed down through the generations, you know that we will see a new one.
Intriguingly, and also confirming long speculation, the nation’s grief contrasts with a baby born underwater with winged feet. Yes, Namor (Tenoch Huerta) makes his debut in the MCU, leading his own nation of Atlantis to war against Wakanda. I could be wrong, but there’s also an implication in the trailer that Namor has been watching Wakanda for a long time. Or, unlike the DC Atlanteans, his race can exist on land unassisted with little problem.
Though there’s only a glimpse in the trailer, this will also be the MCU debut of Dominique Thorn as Riri Williams, the young genius who will build her own armor and become Ironheart. Her long-planned Disney+ series is currently set for Fall 2023.
With no advance knowledge at all, I’d like to speculate that T’Challa will have passed in the MCU the way Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel did in comics. Just as Boseman tragically passed from cancer, it should be the same for T’Challa. From Captain America: Civil War through Avengers Endgame, we have seen the Black Panther triumph over evil. But there’s a heroism in facing cancer bravely, and even if it’s offscreen, it’s a reminder that these immortal heroes are mortal after all. When Jim Starlin showed that in The Death of Captain Marvel, it was stunning and inspiring to a generation of comics fans. For 21st Century fans, let T’Challa, an inspiration to so many now, be that standard bearer.
Who, then, will become the Black Panther? Will it be Shuri (Letitia Wright) or will it be M’Baka (Winston Duke)? Comics fandom says Shuri, but M’Baka would be a fine choice as well. Only Marvel knows for now.
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