How Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Sets Up Marvel’s Thunderbolts

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrived in theaters this weekend, providing an emotional culmination of Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In addition to advancing a wide range of stories in Wakanda, as well as dealing with the heartbreaking passing of franchise star Chadwick Boseman, the film found some creative ways to advance future stories forward. Some of the stories hinted at in the film span far beyond the world of Wakanda — including Marvel’s forthcoming Thunderbolts movie. Spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever below! Only look if you want to know!

As the film chronicled the conflict between Wakanda and the undersea nation of Talokan, it also showed how that ordeal affected the United States government. In particular, we saw that storyline through the eyes of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and his boss at the C.I.A. (and ex-wife) — Valentine Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Through their various scenes in the film, we learn that the C.I.A. has an interest in finding Vibranium throughout the world, and used a device made by Riri Williams / Ironheart (Dominique Thorne) to try to acquire it. Later on in the film, when Ross talks about how dangerous it would be for the United States to have a power like Vibranium, Val says that it’s what she dreams of.

How does Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set up Thunderbolts?

This single line from Val could be the driving force behind Thunderbolts, the ensemble film following a team of anti-heroes and former villains assembled by her. Earlier this year, it was confirmed that the team’s roster will consist of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Ava Starr / Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (David Harbour), John Walker / US Agent (Wyatt Russell), and Antonia Dreykov / Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko) — but it’s still not clear exactly why the group is being assembled to begin with. An argument could be made that Val might be putting the team together in order to obtain some sort of MacGuffin, either Vibranium or some other powerful tool entirely.

“We know the world that we’re playing,” Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier told ComicBook.com earlier this year. “And I think that that’s what’s so impressive about what they put together is that there is this, you know, layered rich world that can intersect with itself and build towards something that hadn’t been seen kind of in the same plane before.”

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Thunderbolts will be released exclusively in theaters on July 26, 2024.