‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Makes a Splash With Its Poignant Exploration of Grief
Writer-director Ryan Coogler was tasked with the unimaginable with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Not only did he have to reckon with the off-screen death of a beloved character, but he also had to process the real-world death of the irreplaceable Chadwick Boseman. The sequel to Black Panther opens right at the crux of this tragedy, with Shuri (Letitia Wright) racing again an unbeatable clock to replicate the Heart-Shaped Herb that her cousin Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) destroyed in the first movie, in order to find a curse to beat a disease that is killing her brother. While Shuri and her mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) are racked with the grief of this unfathomable loss, as T’Challa’s funeral spreads across Wakanda, it is clear that as much as it is a sobering experience—it is also a celebration of the life that he led. It’s a beautiful and heartbreaking approach to a death that affected far more than just the characters on screen.
After the opening title appears on the screen, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever jumps a year ahead. In the wake of T’Challa’s death, Queen Ramonda has assumed the throne and the global weight of being the figurehead of Wakanda. Unsurprisingly, global powers want to get their hands on Wakanda’s resources, namely the highly sought-after vibranium. But Wakanda isn’t the only nation with access to vibranium, which quickly becomes the main point of conflict within the film. After a clever MTI student discovered a way to detect vibranium—her findings were quickly sold off to the highest geopolitical bidder, which led the United States to scour the oceans for a mysterious source of vibranium on the ocean floor—to their own detriment.
Image via Marvel Studios
On the one-year anniversary of T’Challa’s funeral, as Ramonda attempts to get Shuri to join her in burning their white ceremonial garb—as mourning suggests they do—-they are greeted by a stranger emerging from the water. Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) wants Wakanda to find and kill the scientist responsible for the vibranium-tracking device, or risk getting into a conflict with the hidden world of Talokan who can match Wakanda’s strength. Wakanda might be willing to track down Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) because it benefits them, they are not willing to kill a college student. Shuri attempts to waylay the inevitable by allowing herself to be taken to Talokan, but it only enflames the tension between the two nations.
As much as Namor fulfills the classic “villain” role within the film—and he does commit a number of heinous acts—Wakanda Forever actually positions power-hungry countries as the real villains. Through his backstory, which is directly inspired by actual Mesoamerican heritage, the impact of Spanish colonialism is showcased, drawing clear throughlines to the geopolitical powers still looking for ways to strip Talokan and Wakanda of their natural resources. That common thread is what initially draws Shuri and Namor together; she can see his rationale behind wanting to kill Riri and act out against anyone that poses a threat to his people.
While grief is at the center of Wakanda Forever, Shuri and Namor steal the spotlight with their unexpected chemistry. They dance around each other as rulers tasked with protecting the best interests of their people, and while they’re antagonistic towards each other throughout most of the film, there’s still an extremely compelling undercurrent to their dynamic. What’s remarkable is that Coogler (and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole) seem fully aware of the potential in this pairing, and they don’t follow the familiar trope of killing off Namor to solve his storyline. Instead, the film sees the power of forging alliances. It helps that the film is fully aware of what they’re doing, allowing Riri to joke about Beauty and the Beast and the tale as old as time that they’re toying with there.
While Boseman’s Black Panther can never be replaced, Wright rises to the challenge of taking on that mantle. The framing of Shuri as a reluctant hero for her people, still torn up by her grief and torn in half by her own wants and the needs of her people, makes for a compelling story. While the climax of her third-act turn follows a similar arc as T’Challa’s in Captain America: Civil War, the motivations and emotions feel remarkably different in the heat of the moment.
Tasked with closing out Phase 4, Wakanda Forever does carry the burden of utilizing certain characters—specifically Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus)—which does take away from some of the larger themes that the film is looking to explore. Coogler manages to balance the “cinematic universe” of it all well enough, finding clever ways to integrate the larger connectivity into the more human-interest story at play. Ultimately Fontaine plays into the idea of global powers looking to take advantage of nations like Wakanda and Talokan, which will hopefully play into the larger arcs being set up for Phase 5.
Ludwig Göransson returns to score Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, infusing the film with his iconic auditory stylings, while remaining true to the people and the cultures reflected on the screen. While not quite as powerful and stirring as the first entry into Wakanda, the sequel’s score is far more understated, which suits the more somber story at play.
The exploration of grief and its many facets has been the central focus of the MCU’s Phase 4, and while some of those ventures have been poorly paced missteps, Wakanda Forever is the perfect bookend to a phase that began with WandaVision. The characters and their journeys came first and foremost in Coogler’s world, with splashy battles relegated to the background. Shuri and Namor are both posed as two of the greatest assets looking ahead at Phase 5, while Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o’s) mid-credit reveal lays the groundwork for Phases further down the line.
Coogler delivers a welcome, yet somber, return to Wakanda with an exceptional cast to explore the many facets of grief, revenge, and the long-last effects of colonialism through a fantastical lens.
Final Verdict:A-
