While the identity of the next Black Panther has not yet been revealed, a new trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has given fans their first look at the character in costume — and it’s almost certainly a woman. With a slimmer frame than you typically see with men in superhero roles, the new Black Panther has more gold highlights on her costume than T’Challa did, and a mask that incorporates a white dot design reminiscent of the paint Shuri (Letitia Wright) wore on her face during the battle scenes in Black Panther. That isn’t to say this is for-sure the sister of T’Challa…but it certainly seems likely from context clues.
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In fact, immediately prior to the new Black Panther’s appearance, Ramonda (Angela Bassett) says “show them who we are,” accompanying a shot of a woman — almost certainly Shuri — standing in front of the Wakandan throne. The throne room is mostly submerged in water, and the parts that are not, are burning. Then…cut to the new Panther.
You can see her below.
The movie will acknowledge the death of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), following Boseman’s real-life death from cancer in 2020. Since the news broke that the movie would not recast the character, fans have assumed that one of a small number of characters would be in line to take over as Black Panther, with the frontrunner being Shuri and dark horse candidates including M’Baku (Winston Duke) and Nakia (Lupita Nyong’O).
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever , with a runtime stretching past the 2.5-hour mark. It’s probably safe to say a big chunk of that will be establishing the new Black Panther, how they will celebrate T’Challa, and how their approach will differ.
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, according to the official synopsis, Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye, and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with Nakia and Everett Ross to forge a new path for their beloved kingdom.
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler returns to direct Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Joe Robert Cole. The film stars Letitia Wright as Shuri, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoya, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams/Ironheart, Michaela Coel as Aneka, Tenoch Huerta as Namor, Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, and Angela Bassett as Ramonda.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will open in theaters on November 11th. You can get tickets now.
