WARNING: Contains major spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
“My name is Prince T’Challa, son of King T’Challa.”
Those words inspired gasps, cheers, and tears each time I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in cinemas. That final reveal in the film’s mid-credits sequence – that the legendary, late Black Panther had secretly fathered a son with Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, and that the young boy had inherited his dad’s name – was the perfect denouement to a movie that honoured Chadwick Boseman many times over, even as it endeavoured to continue on in the wake of his tragic, untimely passing. That Ryan Coogler and his collaborators were able to construct a satisfying superhero blockbuster that acknowledged and built that real-life pain into its storytelling is remarkable. That the movie sticks the landing so flawlessly makes it truly special.
It was a task no doubt made even more difficult by the online chatter in the build-up to the film’s release. When Marvel made the decision to have T’Challa die in the MCU instead of recasting him, the reaction was mixed. On the one hand, it was understandable: Boseman was T’Challa. The thought of playing pretend and having another actor try to embody the King of Wakanda would be a difficult mountain to climb for his fellow castmates – and his loved ones – let alone audiences. On the flipside, denying Black kids future adventures from the hero just when they finally got him instead of recasting – as Marvel have done for numerous other heroes in the past, albeit in vastly different circumstances – felt unfair. For some, it was simply not the right time for the Black Panther mantle to be passed to another.
It's a sentiment felt by Letitia Wright’s Shuri, who steps up as Wakanda Forever’s protagonist. One year removed from her big brother’s passing, she’s still having trouble reckoning with her grief – she has no interest in finding a solution to the riddle of the heart-shaped herb and becoming the new protector of Wakanda. And she certainly isn’t ready to perform the mourning ritual taught to her by her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), and begin to heal. “What construct does your mind create when you think of your brother?,” Ramonda asks her daughter. “Does it offer you comfort, or torment?” Shuri initially tries to run from her pain, which soon turns to vengeance when Ramonda is killed by Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Ultimately, Wakanda Forever leads the Princess to a pivotal choice: she becomes the Black Panther herself and, in an act very reminiscent of her brother, spares Namor’s life for the sake of mercy.
As much as Shuri’s journey to becoming Black Panther pays off in Wakanda Forever’s third act, her true moment of healing – and the reveal of T’Challa’s real legacy – is held for the movie’s profound final scenes. Shuri travels to Haiti to visit Nakia and, mirroring the earlier scene with her mother, she returns to the ritual, burning the ceremonial garments she wore at T’Challa’s funeral. This time, when she thinks of her brother, it’s not out of tormented grief and anger, but out of comfort and forgiveness. The silent imagery showing the bond between T’Challa and Shuri is all the more affecting for it being the only instance in which we engage with T’Challa in the film, warming and breaking the heart in equal measure.
Only when Shuri has processed her grief is she able to receive the gift of a nephew who shares her brother's name.
That alone would have been a fitting end to the movie – but Coogler and co. keep one final card up their sleeves. Because as it turns out, the options for carving the future of Black Panther weren’t just restricted to recasting the role or having Shuri take the mantle. There was a third path: enter Toussaint, the son of T’Challa and Nakia. Only when Shuri has looked inward and processed her grief is she able to receive the gift of a nephew who shares her brother’s name. It’s enough for her to flash a rare, winning smile.
The arrival of Toussaint – aka T’Challa, his official Wakandan name – can’t help but bring to mind dialogue from one of the best scenes in Black Panther, when T’Challa converses with his father in the Ancestral Plane. “A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father”, T’Chaka tells his son in the 2018 movie. The world was blindsided by Boseman’s death in August 2020, the star choosing to keep his battle with cancer private, shared only with his nearest and dearest. Having T’Challa ensure that his own son and partner were prepared for his passing is a doubly cathartic moment not just for Shuri, but for audiences as well. It’s a gift that only a film like this – so intent on fully exploring grief and legacy – could give us. One of the thematic preoccupations of Marvel’s Phase 4 has been heroes passing on their mantles to the next generation. For the Wakanda Forever team, this was not a choice but something forced upon them. The fact that this end feels so seamless is almost miraculous.
I don’t expect Marvel to pull the trigger on introducing this new T’Challa – whether he’s a teenager or a grown-up – to the wider MCU any time soon. For one thing, even though Shuri has seemingly relinquished the right to the throne by the end of Wakanda Forever, there’s still more of her story to be told, and it’s likely that Coogler will want to honour that. Then there are the various multiversal machinations currently at play, meaning that any number of scenarios are on the table as Kang prepares to conquer in Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania later this month as Phase 5 begins.
But when it is time for the young T’Challa to make his presence known to Wakanda, and to the world, it will carry an emotional charge because we know where he comes from. We know his roots. T’Challa’s legacy doesn’t just continue with Shuri. It continues with his son too. And Boseman’s legacy continues for as long as Black Panther stories are told – a big reason why Coogler decided to continue making the sequel after Boseman's passing is because he's sure that's what his friend would have wanted. He knew how important the Black Panther franchise was. Not just for Black people, but the world. Though he and his iconic iteration of T'Challa may both be gone, the character's onscreen legacy is very much alive – in Shuri, in the young T’Challa, and in all the future stories to come.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is streaming now on Disney+