I had mild interest to watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters last year but with an infant son, it was hard to find time to go to the movies. It landed on Disney+ not that terribly long ago, so my wife and I watched it the other night.

Since Chadwick Boseman died and was not recasted out of respect, the film immediately starts with the death of T’Challa. Dying off-screen of a mysterious disease, one that his sister Shuri cannot cure.

And she has to deal with the aftermath of losing not only her brother but her king at the same time.

Interesting enough, it’s their mother that takes the throne after T’Challa dies. She’s definitely far less trusting of Western powers than her son was.

But her real enemy will not be the Americans or some European country. But an unknown aquatic race of extremely powerful warriors led by Namor. Besides Wakanda, his underwater world has the only other source of vibranium in the world and he’s hellbent on protecting it. Giving Wakanda the choice of being an aggressive ally or an exterminated nation.

Wakanda Forever is a good movie but it definitely doesn’t have a straight direction about its plot. Instead Wakanda Forever kind of sets up new heroes and villains for the next films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as Iron Heart “replacing” Iron Man, who died in Endgame.

Namor is basically the Aquaman of the Marvel Universe and funny enough it was actually Marvel who came out with the idea first long ago. Marvel now has tried hard to distinguish him from the Jason Momoa Aquaman and they did somewhat successful with it. Namor is typically a hero in the comics, so Namor in the movie definitely takes a much darker tone for the character.

And obviously, Shuri becomes the new Black Panther. She’s definitely not as cool or strong as her brother but she works out decently well. We’ll see how her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will evolve.