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. 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. The fact that this end feels so seamless is almost miraculous. For the Wakanda Forever team, this was not a choice but something forced upon them. One of the thematic preoccupations of Marvel’s Phase 4 has been heroes passing on their mantles to the next generation. It’s a gift that only a film like this – so intent on fully exploring grief and legacy – could give us. 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. 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. “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 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. It’s enough for her to flash a rare, winning smile. 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. There was a third path: enter Toussaint, the son of T’Challa and Nakia. 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. That alone would have been a fitting end to the movie – but Coogler and co. Only when Shuri has processed her grief is she able to receive the gift of a nephew who shares her brother's name. 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. “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). “What construct does your mind create when you think of your brother?,” Ramonda asks her daughter. 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. 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. It's a sentiment felt by Letitia Wright’s Shuri, who steps up as Wakanda Forever’s protagonist. For some, it was simply not the right time for the Black Panther mantle to be passed to another. 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. 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 one hand, it was understandable: Boseman was T’Challa. When Marvel made the decision to have T’Challa die in the MCU instead of recasting him, the reaction was mixed. It was a task no doubt made even more difficult by the online chatter in the build-up to the film’s release. That the movie sticks the landing so flawlessly makes it truly special. 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 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. Those words inspired gasps, cheers, and tears each time I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in cinemas. “My name is Prince T’Challa, son of King T’Challa.” WARNING: Contains major spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
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