On August 28 of 2020, Chadwick Boseman, notably known for his role as Black Panther, passed away. At only age 43, his death was a shock to the world as he was not public about his struggle with cancer. Fans were devastated and Marvel had to completely change their plans on how the sequel to Black Panther would play out due to the loss of its leading man.
On November 11, 2022 the sequel to Black Panther titled Wakanda Forever released in theaters.
One aspect of the movie that made it different from a lot of other superhero movies, even MCU movies, is that a large portion of the cast, and almost all leading roles, consists of women of color. Even in the original movie this was a major aspect with the warriors of Wakanda being an all women of color group called the “Dora Milaje”. These women are incredibly powerful and even fought against Thanos’ army in Infinity War.
Representation like this is hard to come by especially in large corporations such as Marvel. It is important to have these characters for kids to see and have someone to look up to who looks like them. Having this adds a level of uniqueness to the movie because it is not done a lot in the film industry.
The newest antagonist to the MCU is Namor, or the Feathered Serpent God. He is a mutant that not only lives underwater, but is the leader of an underwater city called Talokan. He was originally in the comics as an anti-hero that went under the title Sub-Mariner and lived/ruled Atlantis, but those were both changed for the movie.
Namor has a similar villain ideology that has been seen over and over again. He doesn’t see himself as the villain, rather that society is the villain and they deserve to pay. So he plots world domination, and asks another powerful civilization, Wakanda, to join him or he will kill them too.
Because of these things, he was just there. He wasn’t scary, he didn’t make the audience scared for the Wakandans safety, he was just a new problem for the Wakandans to solve. His ideology has been seen many times before.
One example is Thanos. Thanos thought that people were using up all available resources due to overpopulation, so by killing half of them there would be more resources for them to share. He felt he was doing the right thing for the greater good and tried to convince people to join his side. This caused Namor’s actions to be predictable. The audience has seen this before and knows the lengths an antagonist will go to get what they believe is right.
Something was missing and it was obvious what, or in this case who, it was. Chadwick Boseman. From his first appearance as T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War to his last voice appearance in What if? Boseman was able to easily captivate audiences with his powerful fighting scenes, but also his ability to make a superhero feel more down to earth. T’Challa had a great sense of humor and that was just a reflection of Boseman. Boseman is and will continue to be missed by so many people.
His impact on the MCU is one that will never be forgotten.