“A king has his duties, to prepare our people for the afterlife,” declares Shuri, the current Black Panther, in the latest trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. Presumably, Shuri delivers these lines to either King M’Baku of Wakanda or King Namor of Talokan, or perhaps both. Like Steve Rogers, Thor, and the X-Men, the stars of the other Doomsday trailers previously released, Black Panther will face a world-ending threat in the form of Doctor Doom. To face that threat, she’s gathered not just her fellow Wakandans and her one-time enemy Namor, but also Ben Grimm a.k.a. the Thing of the Fantastic Four.
Exciting as it is to see all these beloved characters again, Shuri’s heavy narration and the presence of Namor only underscores the disappointment we felt the last time we saw them. After the cultural event that was the first Black Panther from 2018, the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was a disappointment in a number of ways. The sight of Namor and the Wakandans isn’t just another familiar face in a movie filled with our favorites. Instead, it gives us hope that the characters can rebound from their lackluster last adventure.
A New Struggle
Before we go further, we need to make two things clear. First, Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler is clearly one of the best blockbuster filmmakers working today. The Russo Brothers… are not. If you need proof, just contrast the two most recent movies made by the directors. You will find Sinners in most critics top ten lists of 2026. The Electric State will only show up on any worst of the year lists that some outlets run.
Second, Coogler faced an impossible challenge when it came time for a sequel to Black Panther. Not only did he need to try to replicate the excitement and artistry of the first film, but he unexpectedly lost his lead actor when Chadwick Boseman died at the age of 43. Beyond the immense personal grief he must have endured, Coogler and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole had to completely revamp their film, now including a change in regime along with the original plan to have Black Panther face off against Namor, his nemesis from the comics.
In light of that fact, Wakanda Forever is far better than it has any right to be. Coogler and his co-creators created incredible spectacle, including the initial attack of the Talokans and every single line delivered by Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda. Furthermore, Wakanda Forever has more thematic weight than nearly any other MCU film, delivering not just superhero action but also a story about the Western world’s refusal to stop plundering African and Latin American nations.
Yet, for all it does right, there’s no question that Wakanda Forever disappoints. Letitia Wright may have thrived when Shuri was a snotty teen who knew she was smarter than everyone else, but she struggled to play the character’s internal complications and ability to lead when she became the new Black Panther. Coogler and Cole created an incredible cast of characters for the first film, but most of them get pushed aside for the sequel. Instead, much of Wakanda Forever is given over to Everett K. Ross, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, and Riri Williams, all plot points that seem more interested in setting up Secret Invasion, Thunderbolts*, and Ironheart instead of advancing Wakanda’s story.
In short, instead of being a remembrance of times past and a celebration of the future, Wakanda Forever was a dour, overstuffed, mess. Which brings us to Avengers: Doomsday.
Doom For Wakanda?
Outside of the loss of its star, any problems that faced Wakanda Forever are 10 times worse for Doomsday. Not only is the film going to bring back nearly every major character from the MCU and from at least the X-Men movies, if not Spider-Man and other non-Marvel entries as well, but it will revisit the first three phases while closing the second three phases and, presumably, setting up the next three. Even though this work will be split across both Doomsday and its immediate sequel Secret Wars, that’s a lot of plot ground to cover and a ton of characters to check in on.
Fortunately, the problems of Wakanda Forever aren’t so great that they can’t be at least addressed even with limited screen time in Doomsday. All of Shuri’s talk about preparing her people for the afterlife suggests that she’s coming to the end of her time as Black Panther, which supports rumors that either T’Challa will be recast in the multiversal adventure of Doomsday or that his son Toussaint, introduced at the end of Wakanda Forever, will be aged up to take the mantle.
Whatever they choose, it would be better to let Wright play to her strengths as a carefree genius, not the haunted leader she was forced to become. Also, the new teaser features M’Baku, suggesting that he’ll be further elevated to a place of prominence, at least within Wakanda, something only gestured at in Wakanda Forever.
Finally, if Doomsday simply acknowledges that Wakanda matter, more than the battleground it was in Avengers: Infinity War, then the movie will have gone a long way to correct the problems of Wakanda Forever. Instead of being a place where characters like Ross, De Fontaine, and Williams play out their own plans, Wakanda can be its own nation, just as important as Namor’s Talokan or, of course, Doom’s Latveria.
At the very least, Doomsday has to avoid making things worse for Wakandans, at least until Coogler comes back for Black Panther 3... and hopefully gets to fully create his vision, unimpeded by personal tragedy or franchise building mandates.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026.
The post Can Avengers: Doomsday Fix the Problems of Black Panther 2? appeared first on Den of Geek.
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