3 / 10
I have watched Black Panther: Wakanda Forever once. The 3 reflects honest evaluation of a film that operated under genuinely difficult production circumstances and that the franchise mishandled despite those circumstances. Chadwick Boseman’s death in August 2020 required the production to navigate the loss of its protagonist. Ryan Coogler returned as director and the script was substantially rewritten to address T’Challa’s death within the narrative. The aggregate result is an incoherent story that attempts to function as Boseman tribute, MCU continuation, Shuri succession launch, Namor introduction, and Wakandan political drama simultaneously. Each function dilutes the others. The film also extends substantially beyond its sustainable runtime and includes decorative political content that does not serve the broader narrative. The 3 reflects honest evaluation of the structural problems despite acknowledgment of the difficult production circumstances.
The Setup
The film opens with the off-screen death of T’Challa from an unspecified illness. Shuri attempts to use Wakandan technology to save him and fails. The narrative then jumps one year forward. Queen Ramonda has been navigating Wakanda’s international position following T’Challa’s death. The Western powers want access to Wakanda’s vibranium reserves. Wakanda maintains its sovereign refusal to share the resource.
A separate vibranium discovery in an underwater location alerts the Talokan civilization, an ancient hidden society descended from Mayan refugees who developed their own underwater empire after Spanish colonization. Their king Namor demands that Wakanda help him locate and kill the scientist who developed the vibranium-detection technology. The scientist is revealed to be Riri Williams, a young MIT student. The middle act involves Wakanda’s protection of Williams and the political conflict with Talokan that escalates into open warfare. The third act features the deaths of Queen Ramonda during Talokan’s attack on Wakanda, Shuri’s adoption of the Black Panther mantle through a synthesized heart-shaped herb, the climactic battle between Wakandan and Talokan forces, and Shuri’s eventual peace agreement with Namor.
The Boseman Situation
Chadwick Boseman died on August 28, 2020 from colorectal cancer that he had been treating privately during his MCU work. His death created the production circumstances that Wakanda Forever had to navigate. Marvel Studios and Ryan Coogler decided not to recast the T’Challa role and to address his death within the narrative. The decision was respectful of Boseman’s legacy and avoided the awkwardness that recasting beloved characters typically generates.
The decision also created structural constraints that the film could not entirely overcome. T’Challa had been the franchise’s primary Black Panther character and the focal point that the original Black Panther film had built around. His absence from this film required substantial narrative compensation. The script attempted to provide compensation through multiple simultaneous developments: Shuri’s grief arc, Queen Ramonda’s leadership challenges, Namor’s introduction, Riri Williams’s debut, Talokan’s political conflict with Wakanda, and the broader Wakandan succession question.
The aggregate effect is a film that attempts too much because the structural void T’Challa’s absence created could not be filled by any single replacement element. Coogler’s direction handles individual sequences with substantial professional commitment. The cumulative weight of multiple competing developments produces a narrative that does not cohere despite the individual elements operating with appropriate craft attention. The Boseman situation explains the structural problem without resolving it. The film operates as honest tribute to its lost protagonist and as compromised production that the tribute requirement generated.
For Writers
Wakanda Forever demonstrates the structural cost of attempting to fulfill multiple incompatible requirements within a single production. The film operates as Boseman tribute, MCU continuation, Shuri succession launch, Namor introduction, Riri Williams debut, and Wakandan political drama simultaneously. Each function requires substantial screen time and dramatic development. The film cannot provide adequate development to all functions within its runtime. The lesson for writers facing unexpected production challenges is that compromised situations require focused responses rather than ambitious responses. Wakanda Forever attempted to address the Boseman absence through ambitious narrative expansion. The expansion diluted the tribute, undermined the succession, and overcomplicated the political drama. A focused response that committed more fully to a single primary function would likely have produced a more successful film. The decision to attempt everything generated the incoherence that characterizes the released version. Difficult production circumstances are real constraints that require difficult creative trade-offs. Attempting to honor all stakeholders simultaneously usually fails. Choosing one primary function and executing it well usually succeeds.
Letitia Wright As Shuri
Letitia Wright takes on the Black Panther mantle following T’Challa’s death. The performance is professionally committed within the limits of the material. Wright was a supporting character in the original Black Panther (2018) and the broader MCU appearances. The transition to lead role required substantial expansion of the character’s dramatic range. Wright handles the expansion with appropriate professional execution.
The character development problems are structural rather than performance-based. Shuri had been established in previous appearances as a brilliant but emotionally young technologist. The film requires her to develop into Black Panther across the runtime, which involves both technological achievement (synthesizing the heart-shaped herb) and emotional growth (accepting the leadership role after her brother and mother both die). The development arc is compressed into a single film’s runtime when comparable development arcs for previous MCU lead characters had received multiple films of foundation work.
The compression produces specific problems. Shuri’s grief over T’Challa operates as backdrop rather than as fully developed dramatic engine. Her acceptance of the Black Panther role feels obligated rather than earned. Her eventual physical capability as Black Panther is established through training montage rather than through depicted development. The character ends the film as Black Panther without having received the dramatic foundation that previous MCU leads built through multiple films. The succession is announced rather than earned.
The Shuri succession also operates within the broader pattern discussed in The Emasculation Of The MCU. T’Challa’s death was not a creative choice but a necessary response to Boseman’s death, which makes this specific case structurally distinct from the broader replacement pattern. The franchise nevertheless used the transition to position Shuri as part of the broader Phase Four-Five replacement framework. The marketing emphasis on Shuri’s emergence operated similarly to other Phase Four-Five female-successor introductions. The pattern is the franchise’s broader trend, even when this specific case had different proximate causes.
Tenoch Huerta As Namor
Tenoch Huerta plays Namor with substantial physical presence and specific Mesoamerican-influenced character work. The decision to reimagine the comic-source Atlantean character as a Talokan king descended from Mayan refugees who had transformed underwater after Spanish colonial conquest is one of the film’s more interesting creative choices. The reimagining gives the character specific cultural texture rather than generic ocean-king characterization.
The performance is genuinely strong within the limits of the material. Huerta brings specific physical capability, ideological coherence, and emotional accessibility to the role. Namor operates with clear motivation tied to protecting Talokan from the surface world’s exploitation. His willingness to ally with or against Wakanda based on strategic calculation gives the character political intelligence beyond standard MCU villain motivation.
The character development limitations are primarily structural. Namor must function within the film’s multiple competing demands rather than as central focal point. His introduction requires sufficient screen time to establish Talokan, his backstory, his motivations, and his political position. The screen time available cannot fully develop these elements while also addressing Boseman’s death, Shuri’s succession, and the broader Wakandan political situation. Namor receives professional but incomplete establishment as a major MCU antagonist. The character has potential that this film could not entirely develop.
Dominique Thorne As Riri Williams
Dominique Thorne plays Riri Williams in her MCU debut. Williams is a teenage MIT student whose vibranium-detection technology becomes the central plot driver for the broader Wakanda-Talokan conflict. The character would receive standalone development in the Ironheart Disney+ series scheduled for subsequent release.
The performance is professionally committed and Thorne brings specific youthful intelligence to the role. The character development is limited by the broader film’s structural constraints. Williams receives the development that her plot function requires without the dramatic depth that would establish her as compelling protagonist on her own terms. The character functions as plot mechanism (her technology drives the conflict) and as Stark-legacy successor (her armor builds on Stark technology). She does not function as a fully realized character within Wakanda Forever’s runtime.
Williams’s broader role within the Phase Four-Five succession framework discussed in the emasculation essay is more visible than her specific characterization within this film. The character was clearly being positioned to inherit Stark’s technological legacy in the post-Endgame MCU. The Ironheart standalone series will determine whether Williams develops as compelling protagonist or remains primarily as Stark-legacy inheritor. The Wakanda Forever introduction did not establish her sufficiently to determine the outcome.
The Two-Hour-Forty-One-Minute Runtime
The film runs two hours and forty-one minutes. The runtime is among the longest in MCU history and is not justified by the actual narrative content. The Talokan political subplot, the Shuri succession arc, the Riri Williams introduction, the broader Wakandan political situation, and the various combat sequences all require substantial screen time. The film provides time for each element without finding the structural connections that would make them cohere into unified narrative.
The pacing problems are severe. The middle act in particular feels extended beyond what the material can support. The Shuri-Namor conversations in Talokan operate at extended duration without advancing the broader plot proportionately. The Wakanda political-strategy sequences receive substantial screen time without generating proportionate dramatic stakes. The cumulative effect is a film that audiences experienced as overlong despite individual sequences operating with appropriate craft attention.
A more disciplined edit might have produced a substantially better film at one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and thirty minutes. The Talokan introduction could have been compressed. The Riri Williams introduction could have been delayed to her standalone series. The political-strategy sequences could have been condensed. The released runtime contains material that better editing might have made functional. The film as edited distributes the material across a runtime the material cannot support.
Craft: The Tribute That Could Not Be A Film
Craft Note
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the production that demonstrated that some creative situations cannot be resolved through additional ambition. Chadwick Boseman’s death in 2020 created a structural void that this film attempted to fill through ambitious narrative expansion. The expansion did not work. The film could not be both adequate Boseman tribute and adequate MCU continuation and adequate Shuri succession launch and adequate Namor introduction and adequate Riri Williams debut and adequate Wakandan political drama. The simultaneous attempts diluted each function.
The decision to not recast the T’Challa role was respectful of Boseman’s legacy. The decision was also creatively constraining in ways that the production could not entirely overcome. A film that had been planned around Boseman’s central performance had to operate without that performance. The narrative compensation strategies introduced their own structural problems that the original screenplay had not anticipated.
The lesson for franchise filmmaking is that some production challenges cannot be solved through creative effort. Wakanda Forever could not have been as good as the original Black Panther regardless of execution quality, because the structural foundation that the original film had built was no longer available. The franchise should have accepted this constraint and produced a focused tribute film rather than ambitious continuation. The choice to attempt continuation generated the incoherence that defined audience response.
The 3 rating reflects honest evaluation of the structural problems despite acknowledgment of the difficult circumstances. Ryan Coogler’s direction handles individual sequences with appropriate craft attention. Tenoch Huerta’s Namor introduction is one of the more successful Phase Four-Five antagonist debuts. Letitia Wright’s Shuri performance is professionally committed within the role’s limitations. The aggregate film does not work despite these individual elements. The 3 honors both the genuine craft attention and the structural failures that prevent the production from cohering as unified film.
For analysis of the broader Phase Four-Five collapse, see How The Multiverse Destroyed The MCU. For the broader emasculation pattern this film operates within (with the structural caveat that T’Challa’s death was not a creative choice), see The Emasculation Of The MCU.
The Verdict
A 3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the production that demonstrated some creative situations cannot be resolved through additional ambition. Chadwick Boseman’s death in 2020 created a structural void that ambitious narrative expansion could not fill. The film attempts to function as Boseman tribute, MCU continuation, Shuri succession launch, Namor introduction, Riri Williams debut, and Wakandan political drama simultaneously. Each function dilutes the others. Tenoch Huerta’s Namor introduction is one of the film’s more successful elements. Letitia Wright’s Shuri succession is compressed beyond what the runtime can support. The two-hour-forty-one-minute runtime is not justified by the actual narrative content.
I have watched it once. I do not plan to watch it again. The 3 rating reflects honest evaluation that acknowledges the difficult production circumstances while honoring the structural failures of the released film. Other viewers may rate the film higher based on appreciation for the tribute aspects or the Huerta performance. The 3 reflects what the film actually delivers as a complete production. The film is an honest tribute to Chadwick Boseman that cannot also be a successful MCU continuation. The franchise attempted both and accomplished neither fully.
FAQ
Did Marvel handle Boseman’s death appropriately?
The decision not to recast T’Challa was respectful of Boseman’s legacy and avoided the awkwardness recasting typically generates. The decision to address his death within the narrative rather than ignoring it was honest. The execution of these decisions within Wakanda Forever’s runtime was structurally compromised. Marvel Studios honored Boseman as a person and produced a film that could not entirely succeed as a film. The two outcomes are connected. Honoring Boseman appropriately may have required producing a less successful film than the alternative approaches would have generated. The trade was the right trade ethically even if the resulting film does not work as well as it might have.
Is Tenoch Huerta’s Namor worth seeking out?
Yes. The performance is one of the more successful Phase Four-Five antagonist debuts. Huerta brings substantial physical presence, ideological coherence, and specific Mesoamerican-influenced character work. The reimagining of the comic-source Atlantean character as Talokan king descended from Mayan refugees is creatively interesting. The character has potential that subsequent appearances could develop further. Namor remains one of the genuine assets that Wakanda Forever created despite the broader film’s failures.
How does Shuri’s transition compare to other MCU successions?
Shuri’s transition is compressed compared to most MCU lead character development arcs. Previous MCU leads (Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, Bruce Banner) received multiple films of foundation work before being treated as established leads. Shuri receives one compressed film. The compression is the consequence of the production circumstances rather than creative choice. The character ends the film as Black Panther without having received the dramatic foundation comparable to previous MCU leads. Subsequent appearances will determine whether the foundation can be retroactively built or whether the compressed introduction will limit the character’s broader development.
Is the runtime really problematic?
Yes. The two-hour-forty-one-minute runtime is among the longest in MCU history and is not justified by the actual narrative content. The middle act in particular feels extended beyond what the material can support. A more disciplined edit at one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and thirty minutes might have produced a substantially better film. The extended runtime is one of the production’s clearer structural failures.
Should I watch this if I’m completing the MCU?
Yes. The film establishes Shuri as the current Black Panther, introduces Namor and Talokan, debuts Riri Williams for her subsequent series, and provides essential context for the Wakandan political situation in subsequent MCU productions. Watch once with managed expectations and engage primarily with the Huerta Namor material and the genuine tribute aspects to Boseman.
Does the film work as Boseman tribute?
Partially. The opening sequences depicting T’Challa’s death and his funeral handle the tribute aspects with appropriate dignity. The dedication to Boseman in the closing credits is genuinely moving. The post-credits scene introducing T’Challa’s son (named Toussaint, honoring Boseman’s name “Chadwick Aaron Boseman” through specific reference) operates as additional tribute. The tribute elements work on their own terms. The tribute elements also coexist within a film that attempts too much else simultaneously to function fully as either tribute or as continuation.
How does this fit Phase Four?
Wakanda Forever is one of the Phase Four entries that demonstrated the franchise’s broader collapse with the additional complication of genuine production tragedy. The film’s structural problems are partly the consequence of the Boseman situation that other Phase Four films did not face. The film’s specific failures (runtime, multiple competing functions, compressed character development) nevertheless operate within the broader Phase Four pattern. The film is structurally distinct from the rest of the phase but does not escape the phase’s broader problems.
Is Riri Williams’s debut successful?
Limited. The character receives the screen time her plot function requires without the dramatic depth that would establish her as compelling protagonist. Williams operates as plot mechanism (her technology drives the conflict) and as Stark-legacy successor (her armor extends Stark technology). The Ironheart Disney+ series will determine whether the character develops beyond these limitations. The Wakanda Forever introduction did not establish her sufficiently to predict the outcome of subsequent appearances.
How does the original Black Panther compare?
The original Black Panther (rated 5 in this review series) operates at higher craft level than Wakanda Forever in specific dimensions (Killmonger antagonist, focused narrative, clearer protagonist development) and at comparable level in others (production design, world-building, political themes). The original benefits from Boseman’s central performance and from focused single-protagonist narrative structure. Wakanda Forever cannot match these advantages regardless of execution quality. The two films are different productions facing different circumstances and producing different results.