When Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Takes Place in MCU Timeline Revealed

We're just about a week away from the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, so the question that's starting to be asked is when exactly does the Black Panther sequel take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline? One of the big selling points of the MCU is its connectivity; after all, the catchphrase "It's All Connected" was created to show how storylines and characters can continue from one Marvel project to the next. With the introductions of Ironheart and Namor, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's spot in the MCU timeline is of the utmost importance.

Marvel Studios producer Nate Moore answered the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever timeline question in an interview with CinemaBlend. Moore is first asked if he knew what year Wakanda Forever took place, which is a tougher question to answer considering the five-year time jump in Avengers: Endgame has completely thrown off the years these Marvel TV shows and movies happen in the future. However, Moore does offer some clarity as to where Black Panther 2 takes place since they map out their movies chronologically.

"This movie clearly happens after Spider-Man: No Way Home and Eternals," Nate Moore revealed. "I think it probably happens, potentially, concurrent with Thor: Love and Thunder. New Asgard does exist in our film. And almost concurrent with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is coming out in February/March."

How Chadwick Boseman's Death Affected Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Story

Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer. Director Ryan Coogler was already hard at work on the script for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever before Boseman's death, which meant certain parts of the story had to be changed. Coogler said at the time: "I spent the last year preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say, that we weren't destined to see." As Coogler and the cast mourned Boseman, they poured that grief into Wakanda Forever, now set one year after King T'Challa's death.

Grief and the loss of time were the foundation of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, according to Coogler. The original version of Black Panther 2 took place in the immediate aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, which saw Wakandan king T'Challa — and half the universe's population — "blipped" back to life five years after Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped them out of existence. 

"The tonal shift, I will say, was less of a shift than in [casting]. The tone was going to be similar," Ryan Coogler told Inverse. "[T'Challa] was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after being gone for five years. As a man with so much responsibility to so many, coming back after a forced five years absence, that's what the film was tackling. He was grieving time he couldn't get back. Grief was a big part of it."

After the loss of Boseman, Coogler and co-writer Joe Cole reworked Wakanda Forever to center on the aftermath of T'Challa's death. Instead of T'Challa mourning time lost to The Snap, the royal family and their kingdom would mourn T'Challa as a new Black Panther — and a new enemy — surfaced within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

What Is the Plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?

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.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premieres exclusively in theaters on November 11th.