Marvel Debuting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Prologue Album in July

By Kofi Outlaw

Before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives in theaters, Marvel will release "Wakanda Forever Prologue", a new music collection available on July 25th. The prologue will expose Marvel fans to the groundbreaking new sounds that composer Ludwig Göransson is putting together for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – sounds literally collected from around the world. 

Interestingly enough, the press release from Marvel also refers to the Wakanda Forever Prologue as "the first taste of 'Black Panther: World of Wakanda'" which is the title of the comic spinoff series about the supporting characters of Black Panther. There has been a Black Panther: Kingdom of Wakanda Disney+ series announced, so it's unclear if that's a typo in the marketing sheet or a purposeful reference... 

Here's the first information about the Wakanda Forever Prologue, featured on Marvel.com: 

"This Prologue is an aural first glimpse of Wakanda Forever.

The sound world for the film began with extended trips to Mexico and Nigeria. We spent our days working with traditional musicians who educated us about the cultural, social, and historical contexts of their music. We built a catalogue of instrumental and vocal recordings with them that explored both traditional and non-traditional uses of their musical material.

During the nights on these trips, we had recording sessions with contemporary artists who were akin to the characters and thematic material explored in the film. Using Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole's script as a blueprint, along with the recordings from the traditional musicians, we began to build a musical vocabulary for the characters, storylines, and cultures of Talocan and Wakanda.

The instrumental score and soundtrack for Wakanda Forever both organically grew from these sessions and workshops. They are conceived together as a singular entity to create an immersive and enveloping sound world for the film."

There is already a pre-save list for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Prologue which you can access HERE. Marvel fans will naturally be curious to see what the "Prologue" portion of that title means, exactly. 

The first trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was certainly a melodically heavy and moving experience. Without directly referencing it, the trailer powerfully inferred that Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa is dead, and Wakanda is in mourning. There's a lot about that plotline that director Ryan Coogler and Marvel will obviously have to circumvent since Boseman is gone; a sonic nod to the actor and/or character's passing could help move things forward in a respectful way so that the film doesn't have to heavily dwell on it. 

The mention of Mexican influences is clearly a nod to the sonic characterization of Namor (Tenoch Huerta), who will be making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the film. MCU Namor and the Atlantean people will be heavily based on Aztec culture, so Mexican cultural influences on Namor's soundtrack will be key. 

Most interestingly though: the Wakanda Forever Prologue could also be the first sonic reference we get for what happens when the worlds of Wakanda and Atlantis clash! 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be in theaters on July 11th. The Prologue will be available on major music platforms on July 25th. 

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