Marvel fans went into Black Panther: Wakanda Forever with high expectations after the success of the first film but also with some trepidation.
The sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Challa, was bound to lend an undercurrent of grief to the sequel and sure enough, the film opens with T’Challa’s funeral, acting as a memorial for both Boseman’s incredible life and the character audience fell in love with. While his character’s death was expected, Wakanda Forever surprised audiences with another tragic loss halfway through the film, complete with a second funeral after Queen Ramonda dies.
Many viewers were — and still are — shocked the film was willing to deal another devastating blow to the residents of Wakanda so soon after the death of their leader. But some eagle-eyed fans couldn’t help but make a surprising yet tragic connection that the late T’Challa and Shuri share with windows when it comes to their parents.
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, is killed around the middle of the film when Namor attacks Wakanda. During the attack, Namor floods the tower Ramonda and researcher RiRi Williams are fighting remotely from. So, when Ramonda chooses to save Williams, the queen ends up drowning in her stead. It’s a difficult scene to watch; Wakanda has lost most of the royal family in the span of a few years and Shuri has just lost the last member of her family, leaving her the sole survivor.
A Reddit thread on the Marvel Studios subreddit discussing Queen Ramonda’s demise served to help fans connect how the setting of the siblings’ late father’s death eerily matches Queen Ramonda’s demise. In Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa and his father, King T’Chaka, attend a UN conference where the latter is killed by a bomb explosion. Like Queen Ramonda, T’Chaka was near a window when the bomb exploded, which made him an easy target of the explosion unlike many in the room who survived thanks to their distance from the window.
Both parents were standing near a window when they met their untimely deaths. The circumstances aren’t exactly the same — T’Chaka was killed in an explosion while the Ramonda ultimately drowned after saving her companion from an explosion — but they’re similar enough to make one think. Given how T’Chaka died, fans wondered why there wasn’t a protective mechanism over the windows to prevent something similar from happening again.
Ultimately Ramonda’s death motivates Shuri to take on the Black Panther mantle herself (and as one commenter writes, it gives credence to the “death waits for no one” theme) and leads to an alliance between Namor and Wakanda. And as sad as it is to lose Ramonda, we know a Marvel death doesn’t have to be permanent and characters can pop up in other timelines and universes if the need arises. We wouldn’t be surprised if we meet the queen in another way, especially given Basett’s impressive Oscar nomination for the role.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently streaming on Disney Plus.
