Chadwick Boseman, who played Black Panther in several Marvel movies, passed away from colon cancer on Aug. 28, 2020. “Wakanda Forever,” the sequel to “Black Panther” (2018) is a great tribute to Boseman and a start of a new journey to who will be the next Black Panther.

Director Ryan Coogler nearly quit filming and was unsure if he wanted to return for the sequel. “Boseman was the steward of the franchise and in their last conversation before he passed, Boseman still had Marvel on his mind,” Coogler said to Rolling Stone. Although Boseman died before they started production for “Wakanda Forever,” Coogler used scenes from the first movie.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” premiered in theaters on Nov. 11. Letitia Wright (Shuri), Angela Basset (Queen Ramonda) and Lupita Nyongo (Nakia) all return for the sequel. The movie is about the aftermath of the death of King T’Challa. Queen Ramonda is named the ruler of Wakanda and in the first scene, she exposes other countries for trying to control Wakanda and take their vibranium. Viewers are then introduced to the villain of this film, Namor (Tenoch Huerta). Namor is the king of the Talokan people, who live in an underwater city that is not too happy with the surface world. Viewers first see them emerge when the U.S. military tries to carry out an operation to retrieve vibranium: the Talokan kill everyone on the boat. At first, the military thinks that Wakanda was at the end of the attack, but Wakanda denies any involvement. We then get introduced to the character of Riri Williams aka Iron Heart (Dominique Thorn). She is an MIT student who helps the Wakandans discover any stolen Vibranium. While Shuri and Okoye (Danai Gurira) go talk to Riri and ask for her help, they are seized by the American government, so they plan an escape. While they are about to go back to Wakanda, the Talokan people intercept and take Shuri and Riri back to the underwater city.

Nakia, who left Wakanda to open a school in Haiti, comes back to Wakanda and rescues Shuri and Riri. Namor is enraged as their city has been breached and Nakia killed one of the Talokan people. Namor then attacks Wakanda and kills Queen Ramonda. After mourning two deaths, Shuri takes the Black Panther potion and becomes the warrior of Wakanda. She then orders an attack on the Talokan and successfully defeats Namor. However, instead of killing him, she shows mercy and forms trust with the Talokan.

The post-credit scene is interesting as we find out that Nakia and King T’challa have a kid named Toussaint. “I liked the post-credit scene because it sets up many more Black Panther movies,” junior Jay Gulati said.

The film got mixed reviews from fans as they thought it was dragged out. “I liked the movie but felt it was too long, and there were many unnecessary parts that held the movie back,” junior Kasra Dokhaee said.

The movie got a 7.3/10 on IMDb and an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. “I hope to see many more Black Panther movies in the near future,” junior Rishi Iyer said.