Who is Kukulkan, the real-life deity making its debut in ‘Wakanda Forever?’

Trailers for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s return to Wakanda have fans buzzing about the upcoming film.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to release in theaters on Nov. 11, 2022. Trailers for the upcoming sequel tease a worthy successor to 2018’s Black Panther, one that incorporates several characters from other Marvel releases. The film will contain the highly-anticipated debut of Ironheart, and also unveil a new Marvel villain. The latest villain to enter the Marvel fold isn’t like Thanos, however — instead, he’s based on a real deity from Mesoamerican tradition. The real-world Kukulkan doesn’t have much in common with Marvel’s take on the serpent god, but his influence is still clear in the characters’ many appearances across the comic books.

Who is the real-world Kukulkan?

The plumed serpent deity behind Marvel’s latest baddie is most closely associated with Mayan tradition. The earliest mentions of Kukulkan cropped up sometime during or before the 9th century, and temples dedicated to the War Serpent still exist at archaeological sites to the north of the Yucatán Peninsula.

Over centuries, the things associated with Kukulkan have shifted and transformed. He’s been celebrated as a messenger between humans and their gods, a symbol of power in war, as well as an indicator of divinity. 

A few modern tales about Kukulkan persist even today, but many of them are a far cry from the old religions that used to worship the deity. Some folklore tells tales of Kukulkan’s origins as a boy born in a snake’s skin, while others depict the deity as a winged serpent that, intent on speaking to the sun, flew into its warmth and burned its tongue. In some traditions, he’s even seen as evil, and this might be the interpretation Wakanda Forever aims to lean on.

Kukulkan has cropped up in popular media several times before, appearing in both the Star Trek animated series and its recent humorous spin-off, The Lower Decks, as well as the second recent Tomb Raider release, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. In Wakanda Forever, Namor’s followers refer to him as Kukulkan, officially tying the age-old deity into the MCU.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be hitting theaters this Nov. 11.