Image via Disney
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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the 30th Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, just had the biggest November box office opening in history with $180 million in the U.S. and Canada, and $150 million overseas, for a total of $330 million globally. To borrow a turn of phrase, the reports of an MCU backlash may have been greatly exaggerated.
When Chadwick Boseman died of cancer in 2020, he left a hole that would have been impossible to fill. And Marvel and director Ryan Coogler, perhaps wisely, decided not to try. They announced soon afterward that they would not recast T’Challa, and Coogler rewrote the screenplay to deal with the character’s death. The resulting film, Wakanda Forever, is a visual elegy—an action film that intersperses its fight scenes with meditations on grieving and the responsibilities we bear for the people we love.
While the film’s themes felt heavier and more emotional than what we’re used to from superhero films, it wouldn’t be a Marvel movie without various connecting threads that tie it to the previous film and the overall MCU. Here are the 24 best Easter eggs and references that we noticed in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, plus a breakdown of the credits scenes. Caution: Spoilers lie ahead!
2.Bast
Shuri prays to the goddess Bast in the elevator on the way to her lab. We see Bast in Omnipotence City during Thor: Love and Thunder when the heroes confront Zeus.
3.Unexpected Illness
Shuri laments that she couldn’t save her brother’s life, partly because he only told her when his condition had already deteriorated. It seems like an example of art imitating life. Chadwick Boseman also concealed his illness from nearly everyone in his life, including everyone at Marvel and director Ryan Coogler. People only suspected something was wrong via tabloid photos, which showed that Boseman had undergone a dramatic weight loss.
4.Griot
Shuri’s AI, named Griot, is voiced by Trevor Noah. “Griot” refers to a West African storyteller.
5.Marvel Intro Tribute
The Marvel introduction, instead of showing the original Avengers over heroic music, is a montage of Boseman as T’Challa. There’s no music; it’s completely silent. The only other person to get a customized tribute intro is Stan Lee, at the beginning of Captain Marvel.
6.Throwback Helmet
The Black Panther helmet that Shuri holds during T’Challa’s funeral procession is from Captain America: Civil War, when T’Challa attempts to kill the Winter Soldier.
T’Challa’s arc in Civil War and Shuri’s arc in Wakanda Forever share much in common. Both siblings want to take revenge for their losses, and both realize they must spare their enemies to be worthy leaders of Wakanda.
7.Anderson Cooper Cameo
Primetime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper appears on the news during the movie. This continues a tradition that began with Iron Man (2008) when CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer offered commentary on Stark Industries’ stock price.
8.Ant-Man Fame
The ticker tape on the bottom of the CNN broadcast mentions that Scott Lang is touring his autobiography Look Out For The Little Guy. We last heard about Ant-Man in Ms. Marvel, where we learned that Kamala Khan listens to his podcast. He seems to be doing more than most of the other characters to leverage his heroics into mainstream fame. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will release on February 17, 2023.
The ticker tape also references New Asgard, the Earth settlement that we last saw in Thor: Love & Thunder.
9.Where is W'Kabi?
W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya), the Wakandan traitor from the first movie, is now held in a Wakandan prison. We learn this when Queen Ramonda strips Okoye of her rank as Dora Milaje and guardian of the royal family. In real life, Kaluuya could not be in Wakanda Forever due to scheduling conflicts; he was filming the co-lead for Jordan Peele’s Nope.
10.Meet Riri Williams
Dominique Thorne plays Riri Williams, a child prodigy who Namor marks for death. In the comics, Riri is an engineering student at MIT, whom Tony Stark takes under his wing to become Ironheart. But since Tony Stark is dead in the MCU, it seems that Shuri will be fulfilling that mentor role instead.
Here’s another interesting detail: in the comics, Tony Stark is the voice for Riri’s AI. Is it too much to hope that Robert Downey, Jr. will participate when Ironheart hits Disney+ in late 2023?
11.Making the Mark I
The filmmakers lifted several camera shots directly from Iron Man (2008), especially when Riri is building her suit of armor. When she’s hammering out the metal, she even wears the white T-shirt with the cut-off sleeves that Stark wore when he was building the Mark I.
12.Heads-Up Display
The visual of Riri in her new armor, looking at her interface for the first time, is parallel to when Tony took the Mark II on its first test flight. The similarities don’t stop there: both Riri and Tony attempted to fly to a height beyond their suits’ capabilities, and both of them barely survived by activating their jets at the last minute.
13.Disney and Indiana Jones References
While imprisoned in Talocan, Riri makes multiple references to Indiana Jones, ‘90s Disney animation, and Star Wars. It recalls Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War, who also used ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture references to make his points.
14.Atlantis?
In the comics, Namor is the ruler of Atlantis. But in the MCU, of Namor is ruler of Talocan, an underwater, Mesoamerican civilization that escaped the wrath of Spanish colonizers. In Aztec mythology, Tlālōcān is an otherworldly realm, presided over by the rain god Tlāloc.
15.Contessa Returns
Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine returns in Wakanda Forever—her last movie appearance was in Black Widow, when she assigned Yelena to kill Clint Barton. In this film, we learn that Contessa is the acting CIA Director as well as Everett Ross’ (Martin Freeman) ex-wife.
16.Mutant Alert!
Namor calls himself a mutant, which is significant, because we know that the X-Men will eventually debut in the MCU. We saw a version of Charles Xavier in the new Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. In Ms. Marvel, we learn that Kamala Khan is a mutant. In She-Hulk, Jennifer breaks the fourth wall by asking when the X-Men will debut. And Ryan Reynolds recently announced that Deadpool 3 will co-star Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. At this point, it’s only a matter of time.
17.Carrot Muncher
We see M’Baku gnawing on a carrot. It’s a callback to the one of the funniest parts in the first Black Panther movie, when M’Baku threatens to feed Ross to his children and then laughs: “I’m kidding. We’re vegetarian.”
18.Killmonger Returns
Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) returns in Wakanda Forever, as Shuri’s vision in the ancestral plane. He calls prior Wakandan kings weak, and he tells Shuri to take deadly action against her enemies. She nearly does it, but she spares Namor at the last possible moment. She thinks of Queen Ramonda, who tells her “Show them who you are”—the same thing she tells T’Challa in the first movie.
If you look closely at Shuri’s Panther armor, it has gold highlights—a subtle homage to Killmonger’s Black Panther costume, which also had gold highlights.
19.Imperius Rex!
“Imperius Rex” is Namor’s battle cry in the comics. Translated from Latin to English, it means, “Empire King.”
20.Ayo and Aneka
The movie presents Ayo and Aneka as a romantic couple. They are a canon couple in the comics, so this reveal is consistent with that. It is the most recent example of Marvel including LGBT+ characters in the MCU.
21.Midnight Angels
The Midnight Angels concept is lifted directly from the comics. The Angels are an elite group within the Dora Milaje, formed during the events of the Doomwar storyline. In it, Dr. Doom steals vibranium from Wakanda and uses it to build vibranium-infused robots.
The introduction of the Midnight Angels might foreshadow Dr. Doom’s MCU debut. He’s the Fantastic 4’s main villain, and as luck would have it, a new FF movie is slated for February 2025.
22.King M'baku?
The end of the movie is vague on who currently sits on the Wakandan throne. Shuri debuts as the new Black Panther, but she doesn’t go to the waterfall coronation; instead, she travels to Haiti to finish mourning her brother’s death. Instead, M’Baku arrives and says he challenges for the throne.
Assuming that no one challenges him, is he the new King of Wakanda? Or is he the acting king, at least until Shuri returns? M’Baku takes on a big brother role in this movie, so the latter is more likely.
23.Mid-Credits Scene
In the mid-credits scene, we learn that T’Challa and Nakia had a son, whom they were raising in Haiti away from Wakandan influence and pressure. Nakia and her son both knew about T’Challa’s illness (as did Queen Ramonda), and they grieved privately. The son is also named T’Challa, after his father.
24.Touissant
Prince T’Challa has a Haitian name: Touissant. He is named after Toussaint Louverture, a former slave and general who led the Haitian Revolution against France. One year after he died, Haiti became an independent state.
25.End Credits Scene?
There is no end credits sequence, other than a placard that states, “Black Panther Will Return.” It looks like we’re going to get another sequel. Will it be another entry with Shuri in the lead? Or M’Baku in the lead? Or will Marvel wait 10 to 15 years for Prince T’Challa to grow up and claim his birthright? We’ll have to wait and see.