Watch the new trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther is one of the most successful movies Marvel has yet produced. Not only did it make a bundle at the box office, it’s also the only Marvel film so far to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The sequel was always going to be a tall order, and that was before star Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 of colon cancer.

Nonetheless, the cast and crew came together for a follow-up: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is out in November. A new trailer dropped today, and it looks very powerful:

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is about “how you move forward while dealing with a tragic loss”

“The movie is very much about how you move forward while dealing with a tragic loss,” producer Nate Moore told Entertainment Weekly. “All of the characters, both old and new, are dealing with how loss can affect your actions in ways that are emotional and surprising.”

The cast sounds like they know what he’s talking about. “The tribal council room, that was hard to step back into because the last time we’d seen that throne, it was with Chadwick,” said Danai Gurira, who plays Okoye.

Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Nakia, was nervous, but credits director Ryan Coogler with getting them all through it. “I dreaded the start of this shoot because I could not imagine how we would proceed without Chadwick,” she said. “It was unfathomable to me. But Ryan managed to honor his life and his role in both the film and our lives with his moving, truthful, and clear vision.”

In the end, the cast and crew carried Boseman with them into their work. “I always carried him in every scene,” said Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri. “I always would ask, ‘Bro, what do you think?’ and just try to keep a spiritual connection. He meant everything to me, and he’s the reason why I’m here. He picked me to be his sister, so I couldn’t have done this journey without him.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will introduce Riri Williams before she gets her own Disney+ show

As for the plot itself, it will pick up with Wakanda after the end of Avengers: Endgame. “This is a country that has taken a lot of hits,” Gurira said. “We know what happened in the Avengers movies and what it’s dealing with.”

The cast members from the first movie are picking up the pieces since the death of Boseman’s King T’Challa, including his mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett). “She is the queen of Wakanda, the most powerful, most technologically advanced nation in the world, but she is also a mother,” Bassett said. “She’s balancing trying to keep threats to her nation at bay, lead her people, and mother her daughter, in the midst of the grief of losing her son and king. It’s a lot for her to handle.”

She’ll have a lot on her plate. We’ll be introduced to the underwater civilization of Talocan, led by Namor (Tenoch Huerta), a Marvel character who’s often a nemesis to Black Panther in the comics. “He’s always been really cool and charismatic, but also arrogant,” Coogler said. “He’s kind of an asshole, kind of romantic, and just incredibly powerful.”

Another new character is Riri Williams, aka Ironheart, played by Dominique Thorne. Riri is an American scientist inspired by Iron Man; after Black Panther she’s getting her own series on Disney+. “I love the fact that she is just fully herself,” Thorne said. “She’s definitely not the typical or traditional superhero. She’s very much Riri Williams, the 19-year-old student first, and then there’s this whole Ironheart business that she has to figure out.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes out in theaters on November 11.

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