Movie Review: Yay! or Nay… “Wakanda Forever”

We all know the popular movie, Black Panther. The 2018 film featured actors like Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, and Michael B Jordan and received a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars from major critics. According to Sky News, the film was, “The first big-budget superhero movie with a black hero, director, and majority black cast.” However, the hero Chadwick Boseman passed away at 43 due to colon cancer in August 2020. Chadwick persevered through his sickness, continuing to act in the movie, and brought a film that many have come to love today. You may be wondering why I am mentioning Black Panther if it was first screened in 2019; well if you haven’t figured it out, a sequel is coming out.

The long-awaited sequel to the movie is called “Wakanda Forever” and it’s oddly similar to the last movie, with the main objective being the continuation of the fight to protect Wakanda alongside its people. Being that it’s very hard to replace Chadwick Boseman, his role will simply not be recast. Collier explains that Kevin Feige has even gone as far as to have said that “his portrayal of T’Challa the Black Panther is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel’s past. And it’s for that reason that we will not recast the character.” So who will step up to be Wakanda’s new leader? A decision for the new film was decided to simply make Queen Ramonda, T’Challa’s and Shuri’s mother, the leader of Wakanda.

As “Wakanda Forever” stays true to its last movie, the cast is still featuring a majority black cast, with Ryan Coogler as director. In an interview with BET Coogler says that he made sure to “include Boseman’s presence in the film despite not being physically present.” Coogler then said, “It wasn’t a challenge at all in terms of still making his presence known because he’s with us all the time.” Besides Ryan Coogler, the cast includes roughly the same actors from the previous film. However, there are some new faces yet to be seen in the Panther franchise, like Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, and Winston Duke, to list a few.

As the official release date of November 11th is closing in, there seems to already be a sort of mutual understanding of how good the movie is. According to a review from Rotten Tomatoes: “What director and co-writer Ryan Coogler and the team have done with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is nothing short of outstanding.” So with everything said, will you watch Wakanda Forever?