She’s far from the only celebrity to articulate such ideas, but she plays a character that is explicitly about celebrating scientific achievement. Offscreen, there’s also the tricky matter of Wright’s reported anti-vax views. Why would director Ryan Coogler spend so much time in the first film laying out the Wakandan rules of disputing Black Panthership, then not make use of these rules when the role becomes vacant? I cannot imagine a bigger disappointment than Wakanda Forever delivering the obvious answer.
It’s possible that the Black Panther title might immediately go to her after the death of T’Challa - but even if it does, the first Black Panther has already established the process through which the tribes of Wakanda may challenge for the Black Panther title, so making Shuri the Black Panther by default would be too obvious a play. Shuri is great! But while she has multiple compelling fight scenes in Black Panther, Shuri is not positioned as a warrior.
And I get it: It’s true that audiences fell in love with Letitia Wright as Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister and the genius behind many of Wakanda’s scientific and technological innovations. Some people think the new trailer even confirms that it’s Shuri (they are wrong). She’s the most straightforward contender. Let me present my evidence.įirst, Shuri is too obvious. But I have become convinced that she will be. Well, how about Michaela Coel? Please understand: I have no proof that Coel is going to be the next Black Panther.
Who can step up with the gravitas required to fill T’Challa’s shoes? In the first trailer for Wakanda Forever, the death of T’Challa looms large over Wakanda in the same way Boseman’s death looms over the premiere of the sequel. In the wake of Black Panther, Boseman took it upon himself to become an avatar of “ Black male dignity” and welcomed being a symbol for Black people who needed someone to look up to. Ramonda’s grief - shattering and shrill - mirrors our grief over the loss of Chadwick Boseman, whose work onscreen and off uplifted and celebrated Black life before he died of cancer at just 43 years of age. The first trailer, set to a mashup of Tems’ version of “No Woman No Cry” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” has its emotional climax in Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, T’Challa’s mother, proclaiming, “Have I not given everything?” We’re about a month away from the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and so far even just the trailers have made me weep because of the tender and dignified way they show a nation grieving after the death of King T’Challa, the Black Panther.
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