Who Will Be The New Black Panther?

People wants to know who will be the new black panther, let’s talk about the new black panther.

We’re going to run through every single possibility tell you the odds of that happening and most importantly we’re going to break down which options would make for the best story and then offer up a few theories about this movie.

So we’re going to be talking about W’Kabi, M’Baku, Erik Killmonger everyone who’s wakandan is a possibility.

First i want to say that this movie presents the most unique story opportunity in the MCU. I mean the passing of Chadwick Boseman it was just it’s an incredible shame it’s so tragic i mean the man was an amazing talent.

So when marvel decided to not recast the character they were essentially killing off their lead character in a franchise just one movie in.

This is something we’ve never seen in a movie before.

Imagine if Steve Rogers died in the opening sequence of the winter soldier or if the palladium poison would have taken out tony in iron man 2.

I mean this is a storytelling choice that we haven’t seen since the red wedding when we have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen next or who is safe.

Plus the characters in the movie will be experiencing grief and trauma just like the audience’s very real feelings about Chadwick Boseman’s death.

Now add into this that there’s a mystery about the new Black Panther and we’ve never seen a
superhero movie where we just don’t know the identity of the superhero beforehand.

I mean i wish with all my heart that Chadwick Boseman was still with us but it seems like Ryan Coogler and his team are paying tribute to the king while still using his passing to tell a compelling story.

So let’s speculate on who the new Black Panther could be.

Now most importantly we have to remember that there are no more heart-shaped herbs.

So all the super-powered black panthers died with T’Challa. Now we have some theories on where the new herb could come from that i’ll get into later in the post.

And i also need to address the assumption that shuri will become black panther like she is in the comics.

But there are a lot of behind the scenes reasons why it cannot be Shuri then i’m going to explain a little bit later as well.

W’Kabi

First up we have W’Kabi now Daniel Kaluuya is a tremendous actor and the first black panther who played T’Challa’s confidant from the comics W’Kabi, but he ends up turning on him and siding with Killmonger.

But we already know that W’Kabi is not black panther because Daniel Kaluuya couldn’t film the
movie because of filming conflicts with the movie nope.

M’Baku

A much more likely option is M’Baku, when we first met this character he challenged T’Challa for the throne.

In the comics he’s a villain but the movie turned him into more of an anti-hero and winston duke
had a lot of fun with the part.

His tribe the Jabari are outside of wakanda they live in the borderlands and would be the first to secede if there was a wakandan civil war except in the movies we’ve seen him M’Baku throw his support behind T’Challa against Killmonger. Then he fought for wakanda against Thanos and then fought with the people of earth against 2014 Thanos.

So it is possible he’s become a full-on hero in the MCU but the panther we see at the end of the movie is too slim to be Winston Duke. So i think it’s more likely he would be an antagonist moving forward. So one wrinkle in M’Baku’s story is that he was not dusted, so it’s possible that during the five year blip he changed his tune a bit and became more isolationist.

Maybe he even challenged for the throne but then was forced out when T’Challa returns. I think
he’s a more interesting character if he challenges for the throne at some point.

His loyalty was to T’Challa the man who beat him in combat, so maybe he wouldn’t be cool with another new panther.

So now i’m going to throw out an option out of left field.

Ramonda

Angela Bassett is a tour de force one of the greatest actresses of her generation.

Her becoming black panther would be a definite twist but a bad one, as far as we know she’s not a fighter and the black panther’s primary role is to be a protector of the people and that’s a point that we need to make.

The black panther is the chosen avatar of the goddess Bast, but the black panther mantle does not always fall onto the ruling monarch.

Though the black panther mantle is the king’s birthright we see that T’Chaka was black panther in the 90s, but when he was an old man he passed the mantle onto his son T’Challa.

This is why the effects of the heart-shaped herb have to be taken away before combat because the right to be king of wakanda has to be earned. And being black panther does not automatically entitle you to be the king.

Erik Killmonger

But he died, we saw him die. Did we this is the MCU where no one’s ever really gone.

The wakandan people’s faith is based on a very real afterlife and we’ve literally seen this afterlife three times, so Erik Killmonger’s spirit is still kicking around in the wakandan spirit realm
somewhere, so no matter what.

I think whoever becomes a black panther is going to encounter Killmonger in the afterlife.

Now in the comics Erik Killmonger did die, but his followers brought him to something called the resurrection altar to bring him back to life, so like remember we’re dealing with wakandan
super science and the eternal soul they can bring back Killmonger if they want to.

Bast could even bring him back to life to be his avatar the way khonshu chose Mark Spector to be his avatar and brought him back from the dead. Also Black Panther suit from trailer is lined with gold much like Killmonger’s suit in the first movie.

“But would that not cheapen his death” No his death would be cheapened if he came back and then was the same old villain, but imagine a Killmonger who’s on a redemption arc kind of like Loki’s a former villain who’s now a leader like Magneto was in the comics he would have an arc like Bruce Wayne in the justice league he would be haunted by the death of the hero that he fought in the first film and would want to succeed in his name.

Okay now we’re getting into the final three candidates and they’re all women.

The figure at the end of the trailer has a more feminine physique, but also the panther mask on the poster is more slender with higher cheekbones, So it’s likely the new panther is a woman.

Okoye

Danai Gurira is amazing, but i think we can rule out any of the Dora Milaje they’ve taken an oath to protect the king not become the king.

But then again if the goddess Bast chooses her then she must answer, seeing her take on a mantle that she never dreamed of having would be a strong direction for the character, but the comics have an even stronger story for the Dora milaje.

Two dora Aneka and Ayo abandoned their posts and formed a coalition of women that they freed from warlords. Now the two of them ended up falling in love and forming a rebellion against the throne. I think we’ll see a version of this story in this movie.

Michaela Coel is playing Aneka and she’s wearing armor similar to the midnight angel armor that some characters wore in the comics.

So i’m betting that Okoye might actually hunt down her fellow Dora while having her own loyalty tested by the unrest in her country. She’s a woman without a king to protect and that’s actually a better story than her becoming a queen herself.

Nakia

Now nakia is my personal pick for the best black panther choice. I love lupita nyong’o she can do anything.

So in the movies Nakia was a war dog a member of the wakandan secret police who neutralizes threats in the outside world, but she always leaned more into social justice protecting women from human traffickers.

This is why she pressured T’Challa to help with the outside world, now remember she was T’Challa’s ex-girlfriend but she was also his social conscience, she saw the king that he could be and encouraged him to be his own man.

So i think she would be a great choice to be the panther or she could follow the arc of the rebellion Dora Milaje with the character Aneka.

See i could see the unrest in wakanda causing invasions on the borders with warlords trafficking women within the borders of wakanda the throne would say no we have to protect the golden city but nakia would defy the wishes of the throne and go off and do her own thing fighting to free women from bondage.

Shuri

Obviously she’s next in line for the throne in the comics she became both black panther and the queen of wakanda.

But there are some behind the scenes rumors that indicate that she may not be the pick anymore. Multiple outlets have reported that Letitia Wright has been a problem on set because of her anti-vax views and other undisclosed reasons.

In fact there were even rumors that the ending of the movie was being rewritten to choose a new panther, so i don’t know how much stock i put in any of these rumors i don’t really care what any celebrity thinks about anything, but the rumors do cast doubt on the inevitability of her becoming queen, but still she is the most likely choice because it would make for the best story.

For one thing you’re forcing a character to take on a responsibility that she never wanted a responsibility she never thought she would have it’s the classic hero journey stuff she would resist the call to adventure. Shuri is also not the most skilled fighter so she would have to train her way into being the best.

Everyone loves an underdog story and we have this character whose heart is broken but who has to rise up and become something more to save her nation. She’s also always relied on machines for her fighting but being black panther means that you have to be in touch with your spiritual side and this is her journey in the comics see shuri is super smart in the movie she’s the one who invented all this wakandan tech but in the comics it’s t’challa who is the genius who modernized wakandan technology.

So it’s not a stretch for the black panther to also be the scientist in the family, so in the comics shuri was T’Challa’s younger sister and she dreamed of becoming the first female black panther.

She was planning on challenging her uncle for the title before her brother beat her to it years later she did become the panther and queen of wakanda.

So long story short when namer in a group called the cabal invaded wakanda she was killed but placed in a kind of like preservation amber, then for like 12 issues her spirit walked around a
wakandan spiritual plane and like communed with a spirit who looked like her mom, so when she returned she was now a sorceress with powers like turning herself into stone or into a bunch of birds.

So let’s get into a little bit of theory time.

In the trailer Ramonda says “My entire family is gone” she thinks that both her children are gone, so maybe Shuri does die or is near death in this movie and then enters the spirit realm like she does in the comics.

She could spend a significant portion of the movie exploring the spirit realm, where she has
to confront her own self-doubts and learn to not rely on technology. I think that Shuri will begin the movie trying to synthesize the heart-shaped herb, essentially trying to artificially recreate the supernatural power of Bast.

Her spiritual journey will teach her to trust in the spiritual side of her wakandan heritage and the panther goddess Bast will show her to a place where the herb grows naturally and this place might be in atlantis forcing these two kingdoms to unite against the western forces who are trying to divide these nations.

And like i said before M’Baku is not too are on shuri, so this could open the door for him to
challenge her for the throne in the next movie.

But who do you think Who Will Be The New Black Panther i want to hear your theories.

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