49 Fun Facts About Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Who composed the score for Wakanda Forever, returning from the first film?

Ludwig Göransson wrote a new theme for Shuri rather than lean on the first film's Oscar-winning music. T'Challa's own theme plays over his funeral procession.

Who steps forward to challenge for Wakanda's throne at the end of the film?

M'Baku steps out of the royal ship where the crowd expects the Black Panther, and announces that she will not be coming. In the first film he fought T'Challa for the throne and lost.

How does T'Challa die at the start of Wakanda Forever?

From a terminal illness that the film never names. Shuri is still in her lab, trying to recreate the heart-shaped herb she hopes will cure him, when her mother arrives to say he has died.

At T'Challa's funeral, the people of Wakanda dress in which colour?

White, not black: the crowd drums and dances behind the coffin in a procession closer to a celebration, until a royal ship hovers overhead and lifts the king into the sky.

Who plays Namor in Wakanda Forever?

Tenoch Huerta Mejía could not swim when Coogler offered him the sea king. Asked whether he could, he answered that he had never drowned, took the part, and spent months in swimming lessons.

How does Shuri end her final fight with Namor?

She spares him and offers peace: a vision of her mother stops the killing blow, and she tells Namor to yield so that neither people suffers more for revenge. He yields and calls off his army.

By what divine name do the Talokanil refer to Namor?

K'uk'ulkan, the feathered serpent god: born with winged ankles and able to breathe air as well as water, he was taken by his people for the deity. Namor, he says, is only what his enemies call him.

Wakanda Forever changes the meaning of Namor's name from the comics' 'Avenging Son' to what?

'Child without love' in Spanish: a priest calls the boy 'niño sin amor' as he and his people cut down the colonisers enslaving his mother's village, and he keeps the last syllables as his name.

Who is Riri Williams?

An MIT student who built the vibranium detector, as a class project rather than for the CIA. Dominique Thorne had auditioned for Shuri in the first film, missed out, and was offered Riri years later by phone.

How does Queen Ramonda die?

She drowns saving Riri Williams when Namor's attack floods the palace. The actress objected, telling Coogler he would rue the day; he answered that in this world to die is not really to die.

Which character does Shuri meet in the Ancestral Plane after taking the herb?

Killmonger appears where she hoped to find her mother. He says she took the herb out of a thirst for revenge, as he once did, and asks whether she will be noble like her brother or take care of business like him.

Who takes over as general of the Dora Milaje after Okoye is stripped of the title?

Ayo, long the second-in-command, takes over. Queen Ramonda had stripped Okoye of her rank for failing to keep Shuri safe when Namor's warriors carried the princess off.

Which actress joins Wakanda Forever as the Dora Milaje warrior Aneka?

Michaela Coel, creator of I May Destroy You, said what sold her on the part was that Aneka is queer, as in the comics: she wanted to show that to Ghana, where her family is from.

Where has Nakia been living since the Blip when Ramonda seeks her out?

Haiti, where she works at a school. Ramonda finds her there and remarks that she was missed at T'Challa's funeral; Nakia admits she stayed away because she was afraid of how final it would be.

What is revealed in Wakanda Forever's only credits scene?

Nakia and T'Challa had a son, Toussaint, raised in secret, who tells Shuri his Wakandan name is T'Challa. Producer Nate Moore said a second stinger would not have felt appropriate after so emotional an ending.

Which disease, brought by the Spanish, drives Namor's ancestors into the sea in Wakanda Forever?

Smallpox is ravaging his mother's village in 1571. A plant found underwater cures them when they swallow it, but it turns their skin blue and leaves them unable to breathe air.

Who arrests Everett Ross in Wakanda Forever for passing intelligence to Wakanda?

His ex-wife, the new CIA director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, has him arrested after learning he was talking to Queen Ramonda in secret. Okoye later breaks him out of custody.

What was Wakanda Forever's working title during production?

Summer Break was a cover name, the kind studios choose to avoid attention when filing permits and hiring crew, and it is still on the cover of the published screenplay. The first film was shot as Motherland.

After Namor floods the capital in Wakanda Forever, where do its people take refuge?

The Jabari mountains: the tribe that long kept itself apart from the rest of Wakanda now shelters the capital's refugees in camps on its own land.

What halted Wakanda Forever's filming in November 2021?

Letitia Wright was recovering from a stunt injury: an accident in Boston that August fractured her shoulder and left her concussed, and the studio told the crew there was only so much it could do without Shuri.

What must Riri Williams leave behind in Wakanda when she goes home at the end of Wakanda Forever?

Her flying armour stays behind: Shuri tells her she can't let her take it home. Riri does not leave empty-handed, though, because Shuri has had her dad's old car rebuilt and shipped to her.

Which CNN anchor appears as himself in Wakanda Forever, reporting on Wakanda?

Anderson Cooper anchors two CNN broadcasts in the film. The news crawl beneath him slips in nods to other Marvel stories: one item is about Ant-Man's memoir, and another mentions New Asgard.

In the comics, Namor rules which legendary lost realm, renamed Talokan for Wakanda Forever?

Atlantis in the comics is a Greek-styled paradise. Coogler and Marvel rebuilt it for the screen as a hidden Mesoamerican civilisation, and brought in historians of Maya culture to get it right.

Who plays CIA agent Everett Ross in Wakanda Forever?

Martin Freeman's Ross owes Wakanda his life: in the first film he was gravely wounded protecting Nakia and Shuri's technology saved him, which is why he risks his CIA career to help the queen here.

Ryan Coogler suggested which animal sound for Namor's ankle wings late in Wakanda Forever's sound edit?

Rattlesnakes: he floated the idea in the last two weeks of the sound edit, warning that it might be a bad one, and the editors found the rattle was what made the wings ominous and Namor sound dangerous.

Which costume designer returned from the first film to dress both Wakanda and Talokan in Wakanda Forever?

Ruth E. Carter said the hardest part was the sea: clothes are not meant to be worn underwater for eight hours and used again the next day, so her team had to rethink which fibres could go in the water.

Which Academy Award did Wakanda Forever win?

Best Costume Design was its one win from five nominations. Accepting it, the designer said the Oscar was for her mother, who had died that week aged 101, and asked Chadwick Boseman to take care of her.

Which Wakanda Forever star earned the first acting Oscar nomination for a Marvel Studios film?

Angela Bassett was nominated as Queen Ramonda, the first acting nod for any Marvel film. She had already won the Golden Globe for the role, but the Oscar went to Jamie Lee Curtis.

Which singer made her long-awaited return to music with 'Lift Me Up', Wakanda Forever's lead single?

Rihanna sings it as a farewell to Chadwick Boseman. Co-writer Tems said she wanted the song to feel like a warm embrace from all the people she had lost, as if she could sing to them now.

Which Bob Marley song, covered by Tems, played over Wakanda Forever's teaser trailer?

No Woman, No Cry, sung by Tems, gives way to Kendrick Lamar's Alright as the teaser turns from grief to a glimpse of a new clawed hero. It drew 172 million views in its first day.

For Wakanda Forever's score, the composer went to which country to research and record ancient Maya music?

Mexico: in Mexico City he worked with a music archaeologist to revive sounds he said had been forcibly erased, played on seashells, turtle shells and clay flutes that imitate birds.

In Wakanda Forever, what does Namor treat as an act of war before the flood?

Nakia kills a guard freeing Shuri and Riri from his kingdom. Namor, who had just offered Wakanda an alliance, finds the dying warrior, takes it as their answer and leads the attack himself.

From what does Shuri finally recreate the heart-shaped herb in Wakanda Forever?

Fibres from Namor's bracelet, a gift he ties on her wrist: they come from the plant that transformed his people, and her lab matches them against the lost herb to print a new one.

Wakanda Forever's $181 million US debut set what record?

Largest November opening weekend ever, as of 2022: it passed the $158 million of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the mark since 2013, yet still fell short of the first Black Panther's opening.

Wakanda Forever led the US box office for five weekends until which film displaced it?

Avatar: The Way of Water opened on December 16, 2022 and ended the run. Nothing released in the five weeks between could dislodge it, not even Disney's own Strange World, which opened at number two behind it.

In which country did Wakanda Forever hold its African premiere?

Nigeria: the premiere was in Lagos, the city where the film's composer had recorded local artists for its music. The director and stars walked the carpet there days before the film opened.

In February 2023 Wakanda Forever became the first Marvel film in over three years to be released in which country?

China had let no Marvel film into its cinemas since 2019, passing over Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Eternals and others. Wakanda Forever broke the freeze on February 7, and the third Ant-Man followed ten days later.

Which country's defence minister objected to Wakanda Forever dressing mercenaries in Mali like his own soldiers?

France's Sébastien Lecornu condemned the scene as a false and misleading picture of his forces, and paid tribute to 58 French soldiers killed defending Mali, a country French troops had left only in 2022.

Which Disney+ series serves as a direct sequel to Wakanda Forever, following Riri Williams?

Ironheart follows Riri home to Chicago, where her technology runs up against the magic of a mysterious figure called the Hood. Announced for autumn 2023, it did not reach Disney+ until June 2025.

Which comedian returns as the voice of Shuri's AI, Griot, in Wakanda Forever?

Trevor Noah, of The Daily Show, had only a small part as Griot in the first film. Here the AI is at Shuri's side from the opening scene, as she races in her lab to save her dying brother.

Where does Shuri's final duel with Namor take place in Wakanda Forever?

On a desert beach: Shuri traps Namor in an aircraft that dries his skin and flies him away from the sea, because he weakens the longer he is out of water. They crash on the sand and fight there.

What kept Daniel Kaluuya from returning as W'Kabi in Wakanda Forever?

A clash with a Jordan Peele film, Nope, kept him off the sequel's set. Coogler covered the gap with a single line of dialogue: W'Kabi is alive and basically banished, though still inside Wakanda's borders.

Who plays the Wakandan spy Nakia in Wakanda Forever?

Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia goes back to spycraft to find Shuri: she travels to the Yucatán and questions a village woman who has seen a man with winged feet, the first lead to Namor's people.

What does Wakanda Forever's end title sequence show?

Shuri's funeral robe burning to reveal a suit was filmed for real, in close shots of flames scorching the cloth. The studio behind it, Perception, said it stands for Shuri letting her grief burn away.

Which actor was announced at Comic-Con in July 2026 as the next Black Panther, for Black Panther 3?

David Jonsson, of Alien: Romulus, was unveiled in Hall H as the next Black Panther, so the mantle Shuri takes up in Wakanda Forever passes on again. Letitia Wright returns beside him in December 2028.

Which actress plays Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in Wakanda Forever?

Julia Louis-Dreyfus had played Val in two earlier Marvel stories, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Black Widow. Her scenes here set up Thunderbolts, where she leads a team of villains and antiheroes.

Okoye and Aneka take on the mantle of which armoured duo in Wakanda Forever?

The Midnight Angels are a pair of battle suits that Shuri builds. She gives the first to Okoye, who has just been stripped of her rank, and Okoye recruits Aneka to fly beside her into the sea battle.

Which UFC champion has a cameo in Wakanda Forever?

Kamaru Usman was the UFC welterweight champion when his cameo was reported in July 2022. By the time the film came out he had lost the belt, knocked out late in the final round.

Which actress plays the Talokanil warrior Namora in Wakanda Forever?

Mabel Cadena's Namora leads the warriors who seize Shuri and Riri on a bridge at night. In the final battle Riri gets her own back, blasting her off the Wakandan ship and into the sea.