The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever now has an official subtitle to go along with its summer 2022 release date, and pre-production continues to rumble on, but we still know absolutely nothing about Ryan Coogler’s sequel other than the fact that it’s getting a Disney Plus spinoff somewhere down the line.
So far, Narcos: Mexico star Tenoch Huerta is the only new addition to the ensemble alongside many returning faces, but perhaps the single most pressing question is the identity of the character to step into the shoes of Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa as the African nation’s resident guardian. Plenty of candidates have been rumored, but right from the very beginning Letitia Wright’s Shuri has stood out as the most obvious, and it had been named as her potential destination anyway based on her comic book backstory long before Boseman tragically passed away.
As per online betting site MyBookie, the 27 year-old British actress is still the clear frontrunner, with Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia unsurprisingly in second. The rest of the field features Danai Gurira’s Okoye, Winston Duke’s M’Baku and recent Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi, the majority of whom have already been named as contenders at various points during the speculation over T’Challa’s successor.
The list is rounded out by two names that feel a lot more unlikely than the rest, though, albeit for very different reasons. Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger is obviously dead in the main MCU timeline and the actor’s schedule is full for almost the entire time Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be filming, and we shouldn’t have to point out the reasons why Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes is also a long shot for the role.