Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is finally here. If you’ve secured your ticket, you can watch the sequel in theaters today. Otherwise, Black Panther 2 will be playing in theaters worldwide on Friday. But if you don’t mind spoilers, you won’t have to wait to know what happens in the sequel.
A big Black Panther 2 plot leak that’s been floating around for a few days now will tell you everything you need to know. We know who the next Black Panther is, who dies in Wakanda Forever, and what happens in the post-credits scene. There’s also a big MCU Phase 4 mystery that finally gets solved in the movie.
But the Wakanda Forever leak also reveals the film’s biggest plot hole. And it’ll feel like deja-vu to many MCU fans who have seen all the Phase 4 content to date. Before we go on, MCU fans who hate spoilers should avoid what follows below.
Black Panther 2 was a complicated movie to make. Marvel wanted to both honor the late Chadwick Boseman and advance the MCU story in an appropriate way. The Wakanda Forever plot leak explains exactly how the movie deals with grief while mixing in political drama elements and plenty of action scenes. It should all be a spectacular event.
Again, knowing what happens from a detailed plot leak will not steal anything from Wakanda Forever’s magic. It’s one thing to read about what happens and something entirely different to experience it.
But the detailed Wakanda Forever leak is enough to make us realize that Marvel has kept in place a plot hole that also impacts various Phase 4 movies and TV shows: The lack of Avengers support.
The big Avengers plot hole of Phase 4
On the one hand, Phase 4 tells us how popular the Avengers are. They’re more loved than ever after the events in Endgame. Yet they hardly get involved in any of the incredibly dangerous events we’ve witnessed.
We don’t have Avengers in Eternals and Love and Thunder. But both movies tackle potentially cataclysmic events that could wipe out the universe. Marvel could have easily avoided this Avengers plot hole for those movies by briefly explaining why the Avengers aren’t available. You don’t need expensive cameos to tell the audience that, yes, the Avengers work together to keep the world safe.
Marvel did have Avengers in other Phase 4 titles, including Shang-Chi, No Way Home, and Doctor Strange 2. We also had Avengers in Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk.
Moreover, the action in the latest Spider-Man movie happened over a couple of days. That would have made it nearly impossible for more Avengers to intervene.
Wakanda Forever plot leak mentions no Avengers
Marvel wants its stories to focus on specific characters. That’s why it’s avoiding Avengers Easter eggs so deliberately. Avengers cameos are also expensive. But if the stakes are massive, then it’s incredibly difficult to explain why nobody is calling the Avengers. Or why the team doesn’t take action on its own, especially since the Sokovia Accords are history.
The Wakanda Forever plot leak tells us that the stakes are incredibly real. The world wants Wakanda’s vibranium in the wake of T’Challa’s death.
But T’Challa is an Avenger. He was close with some of them, and Wakanda also has a close relationship with the Avenger. Any assault on Wakanda should generate interest from the Avengers. Similarly, characters like Okoye (Danai Gurira) should at least attempt to find help from them.
The detailed Wakanda Forever plot leak tells us that doesn’t happen. Wakanda does reach for help but from a non-superpowered source. That’s Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), whose support will be limited.
Wakanda will also reach out to Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) in its fight against Namor (Tenoch Huerta). But she’s not a superhero. And she is a Wakandan living somewhere else.
Not to mention that the appearance of Namor alone should raise questions. After Thanos (Josh Brolin), you don’t want to ignore any potent antagonists. At the very least, Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Ramonda (Angela Bassett) should inform some of the Avengers of the imminent threat from Namor.
According to the Wakanda Forever leak, this doesn’t happen either. And it’s a detail that’s going to be hard to ignore. And yes, the story has to be about grief. It has to honor T’Challa and Chadwick Boseman. It has to move the MCU story. Having any Avengers Easter eggs in it might steal from that. But that connective tissue should be there.
Finally, the action in Wakanda Forever happens over multiple days. Unlike No Way Home, the Avengers would have time to travel to Wakanda and other places to take action.
How Marvel can fix it
The upcoming MCU stories might provide more context about the Avengers not being available to help during Wakanda’s war with Namor.
Let’s remember the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes can’t teleport themselves (yet), and they’re not omniscient. Still, Quinjet and Wakandan technology made travel around the planet incredibly easy.
There’s one more thing to consider. That huge Wakanda Forever plot leak might be detailed, but it doesn’t include every piece of dialogue. Maybe the movie does have Avengers references the leaker ignored. After all, we’re looking at a film that’s nearly three hours long.
You can read the Wakanda Forever plot leak at this link.
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