T’Challa might not be safe after all for Black Panther 2

Perhaps we should start working through the possibility that T’Challa won’t be the Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe forever.

Note: Okay, Avengers: Infinity War has been out for a couple weeks, but if you haven’t managed to see it, then be warned that we’re about to spoil the movie.

Here we thought that we were safe to not worry about T’Challa coming back after the events of Avengers: Infinity War. “There’s going to be a Black Panther sequel,” we said, confident that Avengers 4 would find a way to revive him and Spider-Man.

(Okay, we’ll take Doctor Strange coming back, too, and Scarlet Witch. Star-Lord’s still in trouble, though.)

Apparently, Marvel wants us to all just hedge our bets a little, though. Speaking to Screen Rant, here’s what Nate Moore, a producer for Black Panther, had to say: “[The] Black Panther is a mantle as much as it is a person, so we’re not restricted by anything.”

This is not inaccurate. We even see it in the film, both with T’Chaka as the Panther in flashbacks and with Killmonger able to receive the heart-shaped herb’s powers. Screen Rant also brings up the idea of Shuri herself serving as the Black Panther and protecting Wakanda on the front lines rather than from her lab. Don’t get us wrong: we’d pay to go see a movie with Shuri donning the suit.

The thing is, though, that Ryan Coogler has already said he wouldn’t be opposed to working on a film following Okoye, Nakia and Shuri. Our question then becomes why we can’t have both a Black Panther sequel with T’Challa still as the lead and the other film as well? With Coogler at the helm — or someone equally talented — we could go back to Wakanda again and again while still not seeing everything we could.

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For now, though, we hold out hope that T’Challa will defy death yet again after doing it in his own solo movie… or, more accurately, that the remaining heroes will help him defy it. Just like Screen Rant, we’re not ready to say goodbye to him just yet.