Avengers: Doomsday is on the horizon, and Marvel Studios has chosen a bold approach for rolling out the trailer. Each week has brought a new Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailer, focused on a different character. First was the big revelation that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is returning (with a baby son); next came the ominous tease of Thor praying to Odin to spare his daughter, Love; and then we got the Fox X-Men making a return, in what seems to truly be their last stand. As for the fourth trailer? It’s taking us back to Wakanda.
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There are already Marvel fans who have seen the next Avengers: Doomsday trailer, as well as the usual bootleg recording of it floating around. Now that the footage is out there, there’s one part of it that’s raising a major issue with a lot of Marvel fans…
Where Is Prince Toussaint In Avengers: Doomsday?
The trailer opens with Shuri walking across a barren-looking terrain, with her own voice-over playing: “I’ve lost everyone that matters to me. A King has his duties: To prepare our people for the afterlife. I have mine.” We see Shuri (Letitia Wright) and her counterpart, King M’Baku (Wilson Duke), being escorted by Wakanda’s Dora Milaje to a ship where none other than Ben Grimm/Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is waiting, seemingly in the company of Namor and his forces.
Shuri’s mention that “I’ve lost everyone that matters to me” has some MCU shook. Should that line be taken so literally?
Last we saw in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Shuri had lost her brother, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), her father, T’Chaka (John Kani), and her mother, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett). And yet, the princess also learned she had a whole new generation of family through her nephew, Toussaint (aka T’Challa II), who was born to the late T’Challa’s love, Nakia (Lupita Nyon’o). So, theoretically, Shuri should be mourning the loss of “everyone that matters,” right?
Shuri’s Doomsday Trailer May Be A Fake-Out
Let’s run through some alternate explanations for what we’re hearing in this Avengers: Doomsday Wakandans & Fantastic Four trailer.
The first possibility is that Shuri’s monologue is actually directed at her nephew. Toussaint would understandably want to show his own value as a king-in-the-making by accompanying his aunt on a mission to save the Earth (and all reality); however, the monologue we hear in the trailer feels like what Shuri would tell the young prince in response, so that remains behind safely(?) in Wakanda. In fact, we’d go so far as to theorize that Toussaint may have been removed from the scene of the Wakandan envoy meeting with Ben Grimm. It would explain who Shuri is giving that solemn Wakandan salute to before boarding the ship.
The other possibility is that Shuri’s monologue takes place elsewhere in the film, and is directed at a different character (M’Baku, Namor, Okoye, etc). Shuri would therefore be trying to explain why she feels more compelled to venture out as the hero/Avenger Black Panther, rather than staying in Wakanda to rule as Queen Shuri. In that context, Shuri may still not be willing to share the secret of T’Challa’s son with the character she’s speaking to, and purposefully lets the statement that she’s lost everyone that matters stand.
Finally (and we think the least likely) possibility is that Shuri’s statement should be taken at face value. The Black Panther franchise is defined by the deaths that occur around it (T’Chaka died in Captain America: Civil War, Chadwick Boseman died before Wakanda Forever), so catching up with the African kingdom years later and finding out Toussaint (and/or Nakia) died as well would sadly be par for the course. That’s a grim lane to go down, but with all the swirling rumors about Marvel Studios possibly introducing a T’Challa variant in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars… it’s not unthinkable that the franchise would want to clear the way for that character’s return.
What do you think is happening in the latest Avengers: Doomsday trailer? Let us know on the ComicBook Forum!
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