When Black Panther, starring Chadwick Boseman as the titular character, came out in 2018, Rotten Tomatoes described it as a movie that “elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the MCU’s most absorbing stories — and introducing some of its most fully realized characters.” This, I think, is 100% true. The story of Black Panther is set in the fantastical nation of Wakanda, where traditional African themes meet the sky of science fiction and fictional technology. This movie made its impact with the amazing world-building, characters, and overall story.

Like a lot of adventures, Black Panther turns on a familiar father-and-son drama—there’s an assassination, a power vacuum, and a somewhat reluctant heir—a patrilineal intrigue that is filled in here with intense face-offs involving questions of ancestry, identity, the African diaspora, the new world and the old. The movie used race as a way to explore larger human concerns about the past, the present, and the uses and abuses of power. And this was just how the first movie made a splash in the superhero movie world.

Now, the sequel to that movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released in theaters on November 11, 2022, and that has had a tumultuous time as well. A sequel to Black Panther was announced after the movie was released, and all the main stars of the movie were expected to come back for it. The main cast also went on to star in other Marvel productions like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. When the sequel finally went into production, the world was hit with the tragedy of Chadwick Boseman’s death from colon cancer.

Production was paused as his family, the cast and crew, all friends of Chadwick’s, grieved from the pain of losing such a creative and amazing individual. When production finally resumed much later, the cast and crew of the movie knew that they would have to tell a different story that would pay tribute to Boseman. Now, they have come out with a story that does just that. The description of the movie reads, “The leaders of the kingdom of Wakanda fight to protect their nation from invading forces in the wake of King T’Challa’s death, and a new threat emerges from the hidden undersea nation of Talokan.”

From this description, we know that this movie will see the characters dealing with Boseman’s character’s death in-universe as well. The cast members have said that the emotions that they had to show for scenes depicting T’Challa’s funeral were real. They all came from dealing with Boseman’s death. They said that this was a good way to show emotions creatively and to tell a story with them. The main character of the movie now seems to be King T’Challa’s sister, Princess Shuri (played by Letitia Wright).

Wright was given a larger role in the film following the death of Chadwick Boseman, who had starred in previous MCU media as Shuri’s older brother T’Challa / Black Panther. Wright said Shuri turns to her technology as a way to grieve T’Challa. All in all, after watching the trailers and featurettes, I think that this is going to be a movie with an amazing story, visuals, and performances by the cast. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is definitely going to have a similar impact to its predecessor.