Marvel's Kevin Feige Says Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Is a Tribute to Chadwick Boseman
"Now it's time to talk about forever," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said when introducing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever during the studio's Comic-Con panel on Saturday. The sequel, which went into production after the death of Black Panther leading man Chadwick Boseman in August 2020, will pay tribute to the late actor and his character, King T'Challa of Wakanda. As revealed by the first Black Panther 2 trailer that debuted at Comic-Con, the nation led by Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) is mourning their king, who died sometime after the events of Avengers: Endgame.
"He is," Feige told Entertainment Tonight when it was pointed out that Boseman's spirit was "pulsing" through the cast of Wakanda Forever, who became emotional when presenting the first look at the sequel on stage at Hall H in San Diego. "And [director] Ryan Coogler had some beautiful words at the top of the panel about feeling Chad on his shoulder still. The last time we were all together on that stage, Chad was with us, and it was beautiful."
During the Black Panther sequel's portion of Marvel's Comic-Con presentation, Coogler said of Boseman, "Chad's passion and genius and his culture and the impact he made on this industry will be felt forever."
"We put our love for Chadwick into this film. We also put our passion," Coogler told the Comic-Con crowd. "This film has a ton of action and humor. It's also a roller coaster of a movie. It goes to new places in Wakanda that we've never been before but other corners of the MCU."
Like the ground-breaking first movie from 2018, Feige hopes the sequel connects with audiences as much as it pays tribute to Boseman.
"It's a very important thing that Wakanda Forever not only brings the same level of joy and inspiration that the first Black Panther film did," Feige told ET, "but it also is a tribute to what he did, and what Chad brought not just to us, but to the world."
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), 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 the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11.