More than two years after the untimely death of its star and talisman, actor Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther franchise finally returns with an emphatic and defiant battlecry as its title: Wakanda Forever!
During a virtual roundtable interview with director Ryan Coogler, he said that they had explored many different titles for the film, and that there was a special reason for choosing Wakanda Forever.
“When making films for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), it’s a process.
“The film, like the first one, deals with the idea of legacy, and it deals with the idea of the past versus the present versus the future.
“That idea of something being forever, something being bigger than the one individual, bigger than this present moment ... it’s the fate that was here before us, and will here long after we’re gone.
“That idea, that concept ... it started to make all the sense in the world for all of the themes that were in the film, and everything that we were exploring in the film.
“So that was why we went with it. And I think that it’s the perfect name for the movie night we’ve done.”
Indeed, it’s hard to think of another title that has the same resonance as Wakanda Forever.
It’s a title that is more than just the motto of the fictional nation of Wakanda – it also serves as a reminder that what Boseman left behind is more than just a superhero character. It is also an iconic legacy that features one of the richest and most culturally diverse worlds within the MCU.
The plot of the movie revolves around a Wakanda that is grieving over the death of its ruler, T’Challa (aka the original Black Panther).
The leaders of Wakanda, which include The Queen Mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett), princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), the leader of the Dora Milaje Okoye (Danai Gurira), and top spy Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), now have to fight to protect their nation from invading forces.
They also have to deal with a new threat from the hidden undersea nation of Talokan, ruled by Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía).
Lord of the seas
After all, Namor holds the distinction of being Marvel Comics’ first ever superhero, having been created all the way back in 1939 by the late William Blake “Bill” Everett.
Since then, Namor has fulfilled numerous roles within Marvel’s universe – hero, anti-hero, villain, ruler, Avenger, X-Man ... you name it, Namor’s probably done it.
There is a bit of a departure when it comes to the MCU version of Namor, though. In the comics, he is the ruler of Atlantis, but in Wakanda Forever, that has been changed to the fictional underwater realm of Talokan, which is based on ancient Mayan culture.
With so much history behind the character, how did Coogler sift through all that to get what he needed for the movie?
“Namor is an incredible character. He’s kind of a child of two worlds, of the water and the surface, and he doesn’t really totally fit into either one,” the director explained.
“He has the ability to fly, has wings on his ankles, and is somewhat impervious to damage.
“He’s very strong. He’s very long-lived. And he’s also known to be very arrogant, being very magnetic, and at the same time enigmatic. He also walks around in Speedos!”
Coogler also said that they read “as many of Namor’s books as they could find”, so that they could stay true to the essence of who Namor is in the comic books, but also be a character that fits into the story that they were trying to tell.
“The approach that we took with Namor and Talokans in the film was the same approach we took with T’Challa and the Wakandans in the first Black Panther film,” the 36-year-old director explained.
“We wanted to approach those characters with the same amount of respect that we approached the Wakandans with, because we figured that was the only way that it would work, in terms of them standing up to the Wakandans as a true foil, as a true threat.”
Trusting the process
Calling it the “Black Panther process”, Coogler said that the idea is to just approach every culture with a healthy amount of respect, dignity and reverence.
“We hired several consultants to help us to understand the language and the history. We’re making a fictional story, but based on true (Mayan) anthropology, reality and culture,” he said.
“There are tons of Mayans still around today, so we wanted to make something that they could watch, and it could feel as legitimate as when somebody of African descent watches the first Black Panther.”
To say that making Wakanda Forever was an emotional rollercoaster would be an understatement, given the loss of Boseman. But Coogler is “very happy” with how it turned out.
“Time will tell whether we go farther and beyond with this one.
“For us, what we were trying to do was to tell a story that we could all get behind, and that we could believe in, with the realities of our situation,” he said.
“We lost someone who was very dear to us, personally, and he was also instrumental in the process of making that first film.
“So, we had to make some decisions about what was realistic for us, in terms of how we will move forward.
“For us, the assignment was just to finish something that we could be proud of. It was a goal for us to be ambitious and to try to take on more.
“And with that ambition came the pursuit of realising Talokan, and Namor’s world.
“That was a heavy lift for us creatively, but I think it was very rewarding.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing at cinemas nationwide.
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