'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' trailer offers provocative clues
From left, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Angela Bassett as Ramonda and Danai Gurira as Okoye in Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Credit: Marvel Studios
Following the teaser trailer that debuted at Comic-Con International in July, the latest trailer for Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" dropped on Monday. It expands on the early glimpses of a female Panther, of the undersea monarch Namor, of the new armored superhero Ironheart, and of a nation bereaving its deceased ruler T’Challa, the Black Panther.
A Wakandan funeral procession opens the 2-minute, 10-second trailer for the sequel to 2018's "Black Panther," the mourners all wearing white. Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), mother of T'Challa (played in the first film by the late Chadwick Boseman) walks alongside her daughter Shuri (Letitia Wright), who carries the ceremonial black-and-silver Panther mask. Elsewhere, Namor (Tenoch Huerta) examines a wall of evidently Mayan hieroglyphics. The Disney news release accompanying the trailer notes Namor in the film is not, as in Marvel Comics, king of Atlantis but rather of "a hidden undersea nation called Talokan."
"Only the most broken people can be great leaders," Namor says in voice-over, evidently referring to both T'Challa and himself. M'Baku (Winston Duke), leader of Wakanda's mountaintop Jabari Tribe, says of Namor, "His people do not call him general or king. They call him K'uk'ulkan, the feathered serpent god" — the name given by the Mayans to the deity also known as Quetzalcoatl in Aztec and Toltec culture. "Killing him," M'Baku warns, "will risk eternal war."
Next, nighttime commandos raid a heavily armed ocean ship and threaten Wakanda scientists at gunpoint before encountering resistance from the Dora Milaje, the Wakandan royal guard led by Okoye (Danai Gurira). Elsewhere, Ramonda on a beach tells Namor, "We know what you whisper,” and elsewhere again, she addresses the United Nations. In a city at night, an attacked police car flips over as an orange mid-60s Ford Mustang escapes.
Most dramatically, a tidal wave engulfs Wakanda's main city as Namor's forces attack. The queen's empty throne room floods, and at some point is on fire. As Namor flies over the embattled capital, a new character, young scientist Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a friend of Shuri's, creates the Ironheart armor in homage to the late Tony Stark/Iron Man, and in it she takes to the skies.
The trailer concludes with a female Black Panther in black-and-gold, dropping from a skyship to land, expertly poised, on snowy ground.
Again directed by Ryan Coogler and written by Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, the sequel, the final film in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is set for release theatrically Nov. 11.
