Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Trailer Breakdown: Everything's Gonna Be Alright
Marvel Studios
BY HANNAH SHAW-WILLIAMS AND DEVIN MEENAN/UPDATED: JULY 25, 2022 3:05 PM EDT
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" seemed to be in a precarious position. Considering it was a sequel to one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's greatest home runs, and director Ryan Coogler was back at the helm, it should've been a surefire success. But the tragic passing of star Chadwick Boseman put the movie in an awkward position: a film without an obvious lead. Marvel Studios made the smart move and confirmed that Boseman's character, T'Challa, would not be recast. The burning question then became how the film would handle his absence.
According to the first "Wakanda Forever" trailer, which premiered on Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con, T'Challa's absence is very much central to the film. Encompassing themes of grief, celebration, and hope, the trailer does not reveal which character will be taking up the mantle of Black Panther next, but it does highlight the strength of T'Challa's family, friends, and allies, and serves as a reminder of just how powerful the supporting cast of the first "Black Panther" movie was. As Wakanda faces a conflict with Namor, the Sub-Mariner (Tenoch Huerta), there are a number of worthy candidates who could become the next Black Panther.
Let's take a deeper dive into what the "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" trailer promises for the film.
The War Dog
Marvel Studios
The first character seen in the "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" trailer is Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia. While we won't dedicate too many words to speculation about who the next Black Panther will be, Nyong'o has certainly proven herself many times over as a leading lady in movies like "Us," "Queen of Katwe," and "12 Years a Slave."
Nakia is a War Dog, one of Wakanda's highly-trained spies, who serves the country by carrying out covert intelligence missions on foreign soil. Such is the case in this shot, where she is seen on a beach with a Mesoamerican pyramid visible in the background. Huerta's Namor has a Mayan background in this adaptation, so Nakia may be on a diplomatic mission ... or carrying out reconnaissance on a new enemy.
The Queen
Marvel Studios
While the Black Panther and the ruler of Wakanda are often the same person, that isn't always the case; T'Challa took up the Black Panther mantle while his father, T'Chaka (John Kani) was still king. The "Wakanda Forever" trailer quickly answers the question of who now sits on the throne, with Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) now leading the country. Given that Wakanda no longer has the same veil of secrecy that it once enjoyed, Ramonda is carrying a significant burden while her grief is still fresh.
Gone, but not forgotten
Marvel Studios
What's most interesting about this trailer is how quiet and restrained it is. There's no dialogue for the first minute, with the mood instead being carried by the music: a cover of "No Woman, No Cry" (originally by Bob Marley and the Wailers', here performed by Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems), which transitions halfway through into Kendrick Lamar's "Be Alright."
When the first dialogue breaks out, it's courtesy of Ramonda: "I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and my entire family is gone! Have I not given everything?!" The ending of this speech plays over a closer shot showing the mural of T'Challa; the text of the art translates to, "The king lives and the panther ... forever in us..."
Two things are clear from the teaser. One: this film is a memorial for T'Challa, and by extension Chadwick Boseman himself. Second, instead of focusing on trying to find a single person who can step into his shoes, "Wakanda Forever" is an ensemble picture. It shows how each of the previous film's supporting cast is managing the void in their lives. In other words, the main character is Wakanda itself, a nation mourning the loss of its king like the "Black Panther" cast and crew mourns the loss of their leading man.
A funeral worthy of a king
Marvel Studios
Despite the moments of quiet grief in the trailer, we also get a glimpse of a Wakandan funeral ceremony that looks like a joyful celebration of T'Challa's life. The dancers are dressed in white, smiling as they dance. Many cultures around the world use dancing as an expression of mourning and there are a number of such traditional dances performed across Africa, such as the dodi or mutu dances of the Kenga people.
Benjamin Aidoo, the leader of the Nana Otafrija pallbearers in Ghana whose "coffin dance" went viral in early 2020, has said that when his team is hired to carry a loved one to their resting place, "Most people love the display, because they want to be happy." Rather than focusing on the person's absence, the dance is a celebration of "the life that he or she spent before dying."
A baby with winged feet
Marvel Studios
A significant outcome of the first "Black Panther" film was T'Challa deciding that Wakanda's isolationism was a way of the past and leading his nation to a less insular future. It's fitting, then, that the sequel will feature new characters from the outside world. The 50-second mark of the trailer features a couple underwater welcome a newborn baby into their family. Based on the wings adorning his feet, that baby is none other than Namor, the Submariner.
The Dora Milaje
Marvel Studios
The Black Panther might be Wakanda's protector, but they also have protectors of their own: the Dora Milaje. This all-female group of elite warriors serve as bodyguards for the Black Panther, and are led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). Since she has devoted her life to protecting the life of Wakanda's resident superhero, Okoye was devastated when it appeared that T'Challa had died in "Black Panther," and we can expect her to be similarly deeply affected by his death in "Wakanda Forever."
As one of Wakanda's most powerful warriors, and someone with intimate knowledge of a Black Panther's duties, Okoye is another strong candidate to take up T'Challa's former role. It was reported last year that a spinoff series about Okoye's origins was in the works for Disney+.
The ruler of Atlantis
Marvel Studios
In "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Namor and his people, the Atlanteans, are being reimagined as having a connection to Mayan culture; Huerta even learned the Mayan language for the role. The Atlanteans' outfits, steeped in Mayan iconography like the headdress seen above, reflect this revised origin.
One thing that is comic-accurate about the Atlanteans is their skin color; Namor closely resembles a human while many other Atlanteans, including his cousin Namora (Mabel Cadena), are blue-skinned. In the comics, Namor is the result of a relationship between a human father, Leonard McKenzie, and an Atlantean mother, Princess Fen. While Namor only embraces his Atlantean heritage, some of his subjects consider him an outsider. This should absolutely inform his MCU depiction, and I'm confident it will since Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), the antagonist of Coogler's last film, faced similar internal conflict (and, to date, remains the best villain in the MCU).
A war of land and sea
Marvel Studios
Comics Namor has traditionally been antagonistic towards the surface world, especially when we pollute his domain. The first "Black Panther" was one of the more overtly political Marvel movies, so this one potentially having environmental themes tracks. Between shots of a Wakandan city flooding and both Winston Duke's M'Baku and the Dora Milaje fighting Atlanteans, the nation seems to be gearing up for war with Wakanda ... or perhaps Waka
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/938917/black-panther-wakanda-forever-trailer-breakdown-everythings-gonna-be-alright/?utm_campaign=clip
Post a Comment