SPOILERS are ahead for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a love letter to the late Chadwick Boseman and his Black Panther. The late actor's performance as T’Challa shook the MCU when he was introduced in 2016 and quickly became a fan-favorite hero. But, following Boseman’s 2020 death, we’ve all been curious about how Wakanda would go on without him. Wakanda Forever mourns and continues the hero’s legacy, including with the unique and emotional Black Panther: Wakanda Forever end-credits sequence.
The new Marvel movie, which marks the final entry into Phase 4, begins with the heart wrenching funeral of T’Challa and concludes with Letitia Wright’s Shuri taking the Black Panther mantle and protecting the Wakandan people and world from the threat of a new villain in Tenoch Huerta’s Namor. After the eventful Black Panther 2 ending, we need to talk about the end-credits scene. I particularly loved how different it was from the typical scenes we see once the credits begin to roll in MCU movies.
What Happens In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s End Credit Scene
Wakanda Forever itself ends with Shuri venturing to Haiti to see Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia. Upon getting there, Shuri decides to take some time to go to her local beach and follow the advice her mother, Angela Bassett’s Ramonda, had tried to get her to do on the year anniversary of T'Challa's death, earlier in the film. Shuri seemingly burns the white dress we saw her wear early in 2018’s Black Panther in a bonfire and sits there for a moment and remembers him. Footage of Chadwick Boseman’s time as Black Panther flashes on the screen as Shuri thinks of her brother, and perhaps finally finds comfort when coping with T’Challa’s death rather than the initial anger that nearly led her to vengeance.
The Black Panther sequel ends with a smile for Shuri, but there's a scene that follows the credits that directly continues where the ending leaves off. After Rihanna's "Lift Me Up" begins the credits, the scene then begins. Nakia joins Shuri with a young boy we’ve yet to be introduced to. Our hearts all drop as Nakia introduces the boy to Shuri, calling her his aunt. We realize who the boy is: the son of Boseman’s Black Panther.
Nakia then shares that her son is the very reason why she decided not to attend the funeral at the beginning of Wakanda Forever. It was T’Challa’s wish that he not be overwhelmed by venturing to Wakanda as the unknown heir to the country's throne. So, the mother and son held their own funeral for him at the time in Haiti. Nakia also reveals to Shuri that Ramonda knew about her grandson and met him before her death. As Shuri smiles in the presence of her nephew, he reveals that his Wakandan name is T’Challa.
Why This End Credit Scene Feels Different For Marvel
The end credits scene described is the only additional moment after Wakanda Forever, except for word that Black Panther will return. Many of us probably expected some new character reveal, team-up moment or tease for what’s next for the MCU. However, audiences who wait beyond the ending are instead rewarded with this nod to how Black Panther's memory will live on. It’s a deeply emotional scene that offers hope to audiences processing the many losses within the movie, especially regarding Chadwick Boseman’s tragic death at the age of 43.
It’s a different move for Marvel because the typical end credits scene plays to one of either two emotional beats. Either to make the audience chuckle before they exit the theater or get them really excited for the future of Marvel. But, Wakanda Forever’s end credit scene prolongs the feeling of the movie further and allows us to sit with its themes for a few minutes longer in a beautiful way. It takes a tender and satisfying approach to its storytelling.
Why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Is My Favorite Use Of A Marvel End Credit Scene Yet
It’s clear to me why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the first Marvel movie to go this route with an end credits scene. The MCU suffered a real loss and this was the right way to end a love letter rather than move right onto other MCU business. I really loved this different direction and I find it to be the best use of the end credit slot yet. While I totally look forward to what is going to be teased during end credit sequences and have loved seeing those big moments play out in theaters, I really appreciated the quiet approach here with an underline of the focus on the core story of the film with this scene.
This end credits scene feels like a bonus piece of information regarding Wakanda Forever that enriches the story but isn’t this game-changing piece of information that takes away from the experience of the movie itself. Sometimes, I feel as though the reveals that cap off Marvel movies leave audiences with these big questions and teases that feel like commercials and don’t allow the viewers to engage enough with the messages of the movie we bought a ticket for. Wakanda Forever found a graceful solution with this memorable scene, that I hope they'll do again when future movies have something particularly important to say. In this case, the end credits scene reminds us that even though a person may be physically gone, "death is not the end, it's more of a stepping off point," just as Boseman's T'Challa said in Civil War.
Does Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s End Credit Scene Set Up The Future?
Given how Marvel end credit scenes typically do set up something, many are likely to wonder if the reveal of T’Challa’s son will play into the MCU. Given T’Challa and Nakia’s son is introduced in a private moment between Nakia and Shuri, I don’t imagine this reveal is meant to tease anything in particular. In the comics, there is a storyline regarding T’Challa and Storm having a child named Azari, but Nakia is not the mutant character, so we wouldn’t expect this to be an adaptation of that. Perhaps, further down the line, this opens the door for T’Challa to take part in the continued storyline of Wakanda, but I don’t see this immediately affecting the MCU. It's serving the story of Wakanda Forever first rather than the larger universe and I'd like to see more small moments like this amidst the vastness of the MCU.
You can check out CinemaBlend’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever review along with what other critics are saying about the Marvel movie. The next MCU installment to look forward to is Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in theaters on February 17. Long live the Black Panther and T’Challa’s legacy!
