Black Panther’s 2018 release signaled much more than excitement around Marvel Studios’ latest superhero film. The movie was a phenomenon, ranking third place as the highest-grossing film in the entire MCU. While delivering an all-Black lead cast with an emphasis on Africa, urban culture, and strong supporting female characters, the movie also delivered an impeccably well-executed cinematic splendor with one of the best-conceived stories in the Marvel Universe.

The passing of Chadwick Boseman was a shocking and tragic loss that family, friends, and fans might never fully recover from. His legacy will live on in the upcoming sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which will function as a new story for the MCU and a kind of international funeral for everyone worldwide to pay their respects to the fallen hero and actor. Not since Christopher Reeve has superhero cinema and real-life tragedy felt so intertwined, creating a form of collective mourning which will accompany the new film across its press tour, release, and subsequent distribution.

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As Marvel continues to lead the way for superhero cinema, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever may also serve as an example for other big studio franchises that are sometimes faced with difficult moral and ethical decisions regarding how to move forward after tragedy and loss of such magnitude. As word of a new Crow adaptation circulates, it brings to mind Brandon Lee and how its 1998 sequel, The Crow: City of Angels, divided fans. Death can be a sudden monolith of darkness, with such an unchanging permanence in the lives of people directly affected. Traversing its fallout can be understandably clumsy and confusing. While “the show must go on,” it brings to light the delicate and nuanced ways to address the passing of stars we admire and love.

Black Panther: Wakandan Mythology

     Marvel Studios

While we don’t know exactly how the movie will address the death of T’Challa, it’s quite possible the fundamental mythology behind the Black Panther role will become a major part of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s story. With comic book character Namor being reported as the main antagonist of the film, we can expect the upcoming movie to embrace the legend of Atlantis, which will inevitably invoke direct comparisons to Aquaman and the upcoming Lost Kingdom sequel. Often functioning as neither hero nor villain, Namor’s loyalties lie with the City of Atlantis, which may also be the only place on earth other than Wakanda where the invaluable element known as Vibranium can be found.

With lots of speculation abound, the film will introduce Marvel’s version of Atlantis. This could help plant the seeds for further connective tissue with the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe as the story continues expanding beyond anyone’s expectations when 1998’s Blade was first released. It was one of the earliest franchises to feature the Marvel logo at the start of the film (it shows up in Blade Trinity). As Marvel’s diversity continues to expand, so does the challenge of maintaining cohesion between one of the most densely populated intellectual properties in the history of cinema.

We will likely see less and less linkage between films so as not to alienate new audience members who may be coming into the fold, feeling a bit overwhelmed as to where to even begin with the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. To the studio’s credit, most of the movies function well as standalone stories, and it’s likely Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be no exception.

Chadwick Boseman’s Legacy Lives On

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Having not only portrayed T’Challa in Black Panther, which was hugely inspirational for people of color across the world, Chadwick Boseman also appeared as legendary baseball player Jackie Robinson in 2013’s 42. The film is a phenomenal drama about the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the era of shameless 1950s racism. Boseman followed this up with 2014’s Draft Day, legendary director Ivan Reitman’s last film before he passed away. Boseman played James Brown in the biopic Get On Up that same year and landed the role of the Egyptian god of the moon, Thoth, in Alex Proyas’s underrated 2016 big studio epic, God’s of Egypt.

While the actor was certainly gone too soon, Chadwick Boseman’s film resume is awe-inspiring, having played one of the biggest sports legends in American history, one of the most iconic musicians of all time, a superhero, and a god. With Marvel’s Black Panther finishing out his legacy, achieving this level of celebrity is incredibly difficult and rare in the modern era. Boseman’s legacy will live on forever, thanks to cinema and his fans, but Black Panther: Wakanda Forever may set a new benchmark for what a eulogy can be.

The film is currently slated for a November 11th release date.