It's Wakanda forver.
After being away for a few days, I finally got to see Black Panther. It isn't up to the standard of the first Black Panther, but it is a great film, and you have to give it a certain amount of latitude, being that the first script had to be thrown out after the death of its star.
This film has been complicated by Boseman's death, as well as the entire concept of Black Panther. There was a lot of debate about whether or not to change the character of T'Challa, given that he is important to the Black community. How many Bruce Waynes are we up to right now?
Kevin Feige made explicit in the run-up to the movie that it was too close to Boseman's passing to replace him.
The MTV Movie and TV Awards took place in Santa Monica, California. The photo was taken by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin.
Feige said that it was too soon to make a new movie. Stan Lee used to say that the world outside your window was represented by the comic book company. There is a human element to everything we do and we talked about that. The world is grieving the loss of Chad. Ryan made that part of the story.
It made sense, but the future of T'Challa in the long run of the MCU remained an open question. After the events of T'Challa's passing, a full recasting was not possible. Even if this is a comic book movie and you can bring back the dead in many ways, it would be weird to do that with a new actor.
The solution to this problem has been found by War for Wakanda. The ending of the film hasSPOILERS.
In the post/mid-credits scene, Shuri is introduced to Toussaint, T'Challa's secret son, who he hid away in Haiti, away from the pressures of the throne. He told Shuri that Toussaint is his Haitian name, and that he has a secret name called Prince T'Challa.
This isn't a comics thing. In a different universe, Black Panther had a son with Storm, but he didn't have a daughter. This is not an adaption of that.
That's how it's forever.
This seems to be a way to continue the legacy of T'Challa, a future Black Panther himself. I believe Toussaint T'Challa is supposed to be about 6 years old in the film, and while the film doesn't move in real time, it's easy to imagine we are still going to see movies in this universe a decade from now.
During this phase, we have begun to build out a young avengers team. In WandaVision, speed and Wiccan are shown as kids. America Chavez was in a movie. Kate Bishop is the new Hawkeye, Riri Williams is the new Ironheart, and so on. The legacy continues through Boseman's onscreen son. I think it's an elegant solution. It was well- handled.
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The Herokiller series and The Earthborn trilogy are available for purchase.
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