Trailer Watch: Who’s The New Black Panther In Wakanda Forever?

Welcome back to Wakanda!

The highly-anticipated trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made its debut at San Diego Comic-Con Saturday evening (July 24).

Highlights of the two-minute trailer — set to Kendrick Lamar’s mournful ‘Alirght’ — include shots of Wakanda’s aquatic ecosystem (chilling Avatar vibes there) and Tenoch Huerta as Marvel Comics favourite, Namor the Submariner, who looks mighty pissed off.

Basically, the footage gives a glimpse of what life is like in the African nation without T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman, who died in August 2020 after a four-year battle with colon cancer.

It’s not known how the movie –– which also features returning actors Angela Bassett, Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Martin Freeman and Danai Gurira, as well as franchise newcomers Michaela Coel and Dominique Thorne –– will explain T’Challa’s passing. That, and who will take on the Black Panther mantle, a question raised at the end of the trailer.

Speaking at the panel, writer-director Ryan Coogler, who did the first Black Panther, weighed in on making the sequel with Boseman: “It’s going to be hard to follow that up, but we’ll try.  It’s been five years since I was here. I sat about there and we premiered the first footage from Black Panther 1, and sitting next to me was our T’Challa, the late great Chadwick Boseman.”

He also remembered Boseman squeezing his shoulder while watching the first footage. Coogler said, “I promise you, I can feel his hand on me right now.”

While he’s tight-lipped about the plot, the director assured fans that the follow-up –– and final Phase 4 entry–– “goes to new places in Wakanda that we haven’t seen before and it goes to new places in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

Besides the trailer revealed, Marvel also offered Comic-Con attendees an exclusive first-look footage of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Feb 2023), which kicks off Phase 5, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 2023). 

Other Marvel news announced at Comic-Con are the release dates of Blade (Nov 2023), Captain America: New World Order (May 2024), and Thunderbolts (July 2024), with the latter closing Phase 5. Fantastic Four is set for Nov 2024 and is part of Phase 6, alongside two Multiverse Saga-ending Avengers instalments, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty (May 2025) and Avengers: Secret Wars (Nov 2025).

Elsewhere, Marvel also shared its Disney+ line-up: Secret Invasion (Spring 2023), Loki Season 2 (Summer 2023), Echo (Summer 2023), Ironheart (Fall 2023), Agatha: Coven of Chaos (Winter 2023), and Daredevil: Born Again (Spring 2024).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in Singapore cinemas on Nov 10.