Will Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Be As Thematically Rich As Its Predecessor?

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has entered its 14th year in existence. Last year ended with a proverbial bang with Hawkeye on Disney+ and Spider-Man: No Way Home. Season one of Hawkeye concluded around Christmas, and Spider-Man: No Way Home debuted in theaters at around the same time.

2022 will be an incredibly important and pivotal year for the MCU as a shared movie franchise. The highly-anticipated Moon Knight debuts at the end of March, followed by Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and finally Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The latter closes the year out for the MCU in mid-November.

Winston Duke's M'Baku Will Play A Bigger Role In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

2018’s Black Panther was an international and domestic sensation. It obliterated the billion-dollar ceiling at the box office. The film currently stands as the sixth-highest-grossing superhero film of all time. Black Panther was also thematically rich. It came at a very prescient time in history, displaying Black and African empowerment at a time when white ethnic authoritarianism was activated from The United States to Brazil. Black Panther’s sequel has a lot to live up to. Can Black Panther: Wakanda Forever maintain the original movie’s legacy and the MCU’s prestige? There are several elements to discuss before answering these questions.

Before Black Panther arrived in theaters and virtually teleported audiences to Wakanda, the MCU had not been the most diverse interconnected movie universe. Black Panther was the first MCU film to feature a Black lead and a mostly-Black cast. It was also the 18th MCU movie. That is not a great track record for diversity and inclusion, never mind a realistic universe.

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