Marvel Studios released the first trailer of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at a packed hall inside the San Diego Comic-Con last week. And this ended the wait for the much-loved superhero, Black Panther, since 2018. New posters for the movie are revealing some fresh highlights and new heroes, including Panther’s sister Shuri, after the untimely demise of Chadwick Boseman. Boseman played T’Challa in Black Panther 2018. Wakanda Forever will release this year in November. It will slowly reveal who will play the Black Panther subsequently.
The first teaser-trailer of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hints for someone new taking up his mantle. A newly suited superhero makes an appearance. However, the fans may be upset knowing that T’Challa’s Black Panther is shown dead in its initial trailer. It opens up with a funeral scene. So, the kingdom of Wakanda will fight the invaders without him. But how did Black Panther die in the MCU? We will look for its answers in this article. Hence let us begin.
Who is Black Panther?
Black Panther is a fictional character that appeared for the first time in the Marvel comics titled Fantastic Four issue 52, 1966. Stan Lee and artist-co-plotter Jack Kirby created him as a king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda. His real name is T’Challa.
T’Challa became Black Panther after the Wakandan rituals of drinking the essence of the heart-shaped herb. He is the first African descendent superhero in mainstream American comics. His abilities include hand-to-hand combat skills, reliance on advanced Wakandan technology, immense wealth, rigorous physical training, and expertise in science.
Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman is a popular name behind every T’Challa role in the previous movies displaying Black Panther as a Marvel superhero. But before appearing in his full-length movie, he appeared in MCU’s Captain America: Civil War (2016). And after Black Panther (2018), he made his appearances as Black Panther in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Boseman’s appeared in MCU’s 2021 animated web series named What if…..? He gave his voice to Star-Lord T’Challa.
Simultaneously with his growing career, Chadwick Boseman was privately fighting colon cancer for four years and passed away eventually in August 2020. In fact, most of his co-stars and the makers of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever were unaware of his disease. And that’s why the news of his death shook the entire working group along with his fans.
How did black panther die in the MCU?
The death of Chadwick not only created a wave of grief among his fans but also left the makers of Wakanda Forever in dire confusion. They can’t decide either to replace T’Challa in the film or bring someone else in the mantle of the already existing Black Panther.
In the opening teaser of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Shuri, his mother Ramonda, and all others in the kingdom are mourning at a funeral. Although whose funeral they are attending is unclear, it does hint that T’Challa has passed away mysteriously. A new Black Panther in his advanced superhero suit appears in the end. However, it’s still a secret who he or she will be.
Hence official Disney press release cleared that Black Panther died, along with the actor who played him. But the cause of his death is still not revealed. This reason will either get unveiled later in the film, or some Marvel type of cinematic connections will be established to provide a reason for his death. One reason could be the gap where Thanos snapped half the population of the world. Unlike other Marvel superheroes dying while fighting with the villains, T’Challa will be one of the heroes taken away by a disease. This will represent the fact that heroes are normal human beings who can die from normal ailments. It would be better to pay tribute to beloved Boseman with zero milking over his death. This will be his true farewell.
The official synopsis of Wakanda Forever reads: Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), will fight to protect Wakanda from foreign powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. The heroes must come together with War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) to construct a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.
It also introduces Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, and others like Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena, and Alex Livanalli.
Black Panther in MCU is gone, and no one can replace him. But there are possibilities for his co-mates to come forward and lead the kingdom of Wakanda.
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