The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opening weekend is behind us, and the sequel was a smash hit at the box office. The movie made $330 million worldwide, $180 million of which came from US theaters. Fans of Black Panther and the MCU flocked to theaters after months of teasers and leaks to finally watch the sequel. Now that we know the ending and credits scene of Wakanda Forever officially, we can finally explain what it means, with extra help from Marvel.
Producer Nate Moore explained why that particular credits scene happened the way it happened. And he teased the importance of the Talokan power for the future of the MCU.
Before we dig in, we’ll remind you that big spoilers from Wakanda Forever follow.
The Wakanda Forever ending explained
By the end of the sequel, we get a fierce new Black Panther, determined to get her revenge. That’s Shuri (Letitia Wright), who has lost everything. She wants to kill Namor (Tenoch Huerta) brutally, and she’s close to doing it in the climactic final battle. She relents, only to demand the mutant’s surrender.
In return, she promises that Wakanda will defend the oceans and Talokan with it. Namor accepts the deal that will save his life, much to the disappointment of his trusted lieutenants. But he explains his reasoning to Namora (Mabel Cadena) after the battle.
Namor realized that Wakanda is left without any friends. And when the surface world will eventually rise against Wakanda, something Wakanda Forever sets up, the new Black Panther will need Talokan.
The Wakanda Forever ending also gives us Okoye (Danai Gurira) saving Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), the CIA spy who will live to fight another day.
Separately Riri (Dominique Thorne) gets to go home without taking up her Wakandan Ironheart suit. That means Wakanda Forever isn’t a complete origin story for Ironheart, as we’ve explained before.
There’s also M’Baku (Winston Duke), who seems ready to challenge Shuri for the throne of Wakanda, although it’s unclear whether he’s serious about that. As for Shuri, she goes to Haiti to see Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and perform the clothes-burning ritual that will conclude her mourning of T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman).
Wakanda Forever’s only credits scene happens right after Shuri’s ritual. Nakia introduces young T’Challa, her and King T’Challa’s son. We’ve already explained that’s how Marvel chose to recast the role without actually recasting it.
The credits scene was planned since the early Black Panther 2 draft
Nate Moore explained to Collider that the Wakanda Forever credits scene was always in the movie after the events in Wakanda Forever’s ending.
Marvel settled on it early on in the development of the script, “pretty much since Chad’s passing.” Furthermore, Moore said that the “notion of the character introduced in that scene predated Chad’s passing.” Marvel always liked the idea of such a credits scene. Moore probably refers to having T’Challa’s son introduced that way in the MCU, as the interview is supposed to be free of spoilers.
The producer said the Wakanda Forever credits scene “was repurposed kind of thematically once Chad passed, and hopefully feels like renewal after a time of adversity.”
Heartbreaking credits scene aside, the Wakanda Forever ending gave us another significant development. It showed us how powerful the Talokan people are. If it wasn’t already clear early in the movie. They might not be as strong as Namor individually. But they would have ultimately destroyed the Wakandan at sea if not for Black Panther beating Namor in their duel.
Why are the Talokan so strong in Wakanda Forever?
That makes the mysterious underwater nation an incredible power on Earth. Collectively, they might be even more powerful than Wakanda, which is Earth’s only real superpower in the present tense of the MCU. A power that the US and other countries want to overthrow so they can get their hands on that precious vibranium.
The Talokans aren’t just valuable for Wakanda if the African state will ever need them but to the Earth itself. The Avengers might face future threats that can cause world-ending events and might need assistance from Namor and his Talokan.
It’s unclear when we’ll see the Talokan next in the MCU. But considering the Wakanda Forever ending, it’s not unreasonable to expect to see them in other stories.
Nate Moore also addressed these underwater super-soldiers in the interview. The producer said that these people live underwater, which explains their strength. Their muscle density might be higher, and their bones are probably lighter.
They’re stronger overall than humans, something Okoye discovered the hard way. The three Talokans she thought she wounded fatally got back on their feet.
“If and when we see [the Talokan] again, I think whoever comes across them might be in some trouble,” Moore teased. We certainly hope the Talokan nation will not stay secret for too long. The MCU will be much more exciting once the Namor secret is exposed.
The full interview follows below.
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