Black Panther introduced several great new characters to us for the MCU, but then it took some of them away. Could we possibly see Forest Whitaker again in the inevitable Black Panther 2? It seems like such a thing isn't entirely outside the realm of possibility, While his character of Zuri was killed by Killmonger, the actor points out that the movie does set up a way for the dead to communicate with the living, so perhaps we could see Zuri again on the ancestral plane. According to Whitaker...
I guess I would be like an Obi-Wan Kenobi, you know, who comes back, he talks from the ancestral plane to give advice to T'Challa. Chadwick's amazing in the film. Ryan Coogler's done such an amazing job, so proud to be in it.
The fact that there will be a Black Panther 2 is a foregone conclusion. The first movie has made a billion dollars around the world and you don't let franchises like that simply sit around. Although, one wonders if the first movie would have said goodbye to the characters that it did if it had been thinking about the future. Zuri, was a sort of surrogate father figure to T'Challa in Black Panther, with the hero having lost his own father during Captain America: Civil War. Unfortunately, T'Challa lost his second father in Black Panther when Zuri tried to get involved in the ritual combat, and was killed by Killmonger.
Exactly what the rules are of the ancestral plane are never clearly defined, but that would give Black Panther 2 some freedom to use it to bring back other deceased characters if it wanted to, as Forest Whitaker implies to ET. The name "ancestral plane" would seem to indicate that you can only speak with your ancestors here, and T'Challa and Zuri were not actually related as far as we know, but if we broaden the concept of an ancestor, then perhaps anybody who had a significant impact on somebody's life can be visited there.
Of course, the other issue with this idea is that we only ever see people visiting the ancestral plane after ingesting the nectar of the flower that gives the strength of the Black Panther, and we saw all of them get burned in the first movie. T'Challa would have to lose, and then regain his powers to find himself on the ancestral plane and not only does that seem unlikely, but we've already seen that play out once. Seeing it in the sequel would probably feel less than creative.
Still, if there's another way for Zuri to show in a Black Panther sequel, I'm all for it. Forest Whitaker is a great actor and any excuse necessary to get him back on the screen is acceptable.
