Fans have been obsessing over the first trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ever since it dropped at last night’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, which set the stage for an incredible volume of top-tier Marvel Cinematic Universe content to come throughout Phases Four, Five, and Six.
Ryan Coogler and his team faced a tough job in crafting a sequel that manages to deliver a worthy successor to the beloved original, which went on to earn over $1.3 billion at the box office, land an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and reign as the MCU’s best-reviewed project ever until Ms. Marvel came along, all while paying tribute to the memory and legacy left behind by Chadwick Boseman and his T’Challa.
The footage was suitably stunning, and while the Wakanda Forever teaser stopped short of confirming who would be picking up the mantle of the title hero and protector of the fictional African nation, an interesting theory is already making the rounds.
As much as another fake-out death or resurrection would lean into one of the MCU’s worst tropes, it does kind of make sense. Killmonger asked to be buried at sea, which is where we’ll be introduced to Tenoch Huerta’s Namor and the rest of his Atlantean people. We don’t know the who, what, when, where, or why of their existence and/or technology as of yet, so it cant be ruled out.
Then again, there are several other figures in the story of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever worthy of inheriting the suit, so we’ll just have to wait and see if the answer presents itself between now and November.
