If you predicted that Daniel Kaluuya would become the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new Black Panther in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever I hope you didn’t bet any money it.
According to Kaluuya himself (during an interview with Rotten Tomatoes’ Jacqueline Coley), “schedule conflicts” with his upcoming movie Nope prevented him from returning for Wakanda Forever.
In the first film, Kaluuya played W’Kabi, an ally to Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, and the husband of Danai Gurira’s Okoye. W’Kabi and Okoye briefly wound up on opposite sides of the big battle at the end of the film, before they ultimately reconcile. The pair was supposed to have more screen time together, but their big scene was deleted from the finished film.
Since appearing in the first Black Panther, Kaluuya won his first Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah.
Even by Marvel’s standards, the plot details around Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are unusually vague. Franchise star Chadwick Boseman passed away during the film’s script-writing process, and it’s yet to be made clear who exactly will become the new Black Panther in the movie. Even without Kaluuya, the film will still star Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett, all from the first Black Panther. And the movie will also include an appearance from Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, who will become the armored hero known as Ironheart. The movie opens in four months and still does not have a trailer.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to premiere exclusively in theaters on November 11, 2022. Nope, which reunites Kaluuya with Get Out director Jordan Peele, opens on July 22.
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