Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Plot Synopsis
T’Challa is dead, killed by a virus off-screen. Wakanda is in a state of mourning. Other countries are desperate to steal Wakanda’s Vibranium reserves, and a new threat quickly emerges in the form of Namor.
Alongside Talokan warriors, that are armed with hypnotic singing powers like Sirens, Namor shows up unannounced in Wakanda, needing help from Shuri and the Queen to save his world. It turns out a brilliant scientist has created a device to detect Vibranium, and Namor wants Wakanda’s help to kill them to protect both their worlds. That scientist however, happens to be Riri Williams aka. Ironheart.
Why does Namor attack Wakanda?
When both the Queen and Shuri refuse to help Namor, unwilling to kill Riri in order to settle this peace, Nakia shows up and saves them both, which riles up Namor. As a result, he attacks Wakanda and drowns the queen, flooding the streets and almost killing Riri too. He promises to come back, setting up the final showdown between both sides.
Is Namor defeated?
While Ironheart whizzes around in her new armour (which looks like a rejected design from Power Rangers I may add), trying to help Wakanda defeat the Talokan warriors, Shuri – who is now the new Black Panther – squares off against Namor. After using a special ship to dry up the moisture from Namor, he’s already slightly weakened as the fight spills over the beach.
Namor impales Shuri but she recovers, shrugging off the injury and overcoming Namor, delivering a final blow that burns his back and puts a stop to this invasion.
Instead of killing him however, Shuri thinks back to her vision, where the Queen questioned what sort of leader Shuri should be, and decides to spare Namor’s life. In fact, she agrees to a truce, agreeing to keep the secrets of Talokan safe.
Riri Williams is also safe and secure too, allowed to head back home again, while Namor returns to the ocean as before.
What are the ramifications of the peace deal?
Of course, given the bad blood between the two sides – not to mention Nakia’s ties to T’Challa – this peace seems fragile and could crumble at any moment. Despite being defeated by the new Black Panther, Namor continues to work out how to bring war to the surface world, confident that Shuri can be easily manipulated along the way.
Who is the leader of Wakanda?
Although Shuri is the new Black Panther, the actual title of King of Wakanda passes to M’Baku, who has been a dominant force through much of this movie. Given that anyone of royal blood can challenge the current ruler, it opens up implications over this in the future, especially if T’Challa had a secret child that was raised in secret.
Seemingly foreseeing this and not wanting to even open up the possibility of a challenge, at the end of the movie the tribes gather to crown Shuri as Wakanda’s Queen but instead, M’Baku steps off the plane and announces he’s the new King.
How does Wakanda Forever end? What happens during the post-credit scene?
Earlier in the movie, Shuri refuses to burn her ceremonial funeral gown, having never quite processed T’Challa’s death and consumed by grief and anger. Here though, she heads to Haiti alongside Nakia in a bid to finally say farewell to her brother. They’re also joined by a young boy who’s revealed to be T’Challa’s son in the post-credit sequence.
He and Nakia agreed that the boy should grow up outside Wakanda to avoid pressures of the throne, and the boy’s Wakandan name is actually Prince T’Challa! It’s unclear whether the plan here is to pass the torch from Shuri across to the new T’Challa or not but it’s a tantalizing prospect.
Shuri heads down to the beach and eventually burns her funeral gown, reflecting back on all those moments with T’Challa and letting herself finally cry and release her pent-up emotion. After suffering through so much heartache and death, it’s perhaps symbolic to see Shuri finally given something to celebrate.
Read More: Wakanda Forever Movie Review