Black Panther: Wakanda Forever TRIVIA!!!

For the 11/17 edition of the Examiner, I reviewed the latest MCU feature Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is probably one of the best that the MCU had to offer recently. Now, here are some interesting little tidbits about this amazing sequel!

• Tenoch Huerta, who plays the ruler of an underwater kingdom, didn't know how to swim. When Ryan Coogler offered him the role and asked about his swimming skills, Huerta simply replied, "I've never drowned before." He took swimming lessons afterwards in preparation for the role.

• Chadwick Boseman's brother, Derrick Boseman has spoken out against the idea of retiring the character of T'Challa rather than recasting. He believes that his brother wouldn't have been so egotistical as to wanting the character to die with him and would instead want the character's journey to continue.

• Chadwick Boseman initially signed up for a 5 picture deal with Marvel Studios back in 2014. This film would have been his final contractual appearance in live action as Black Panther in the MCU.

• The actors cast as Talokan learned a Mayan language for the film.

• Ryan Coogler nearly stepped back from this movie and filmmaking as a whole after Chadwick Boseman's death, due to how emotionally painful it was losing his friend/hero. However, after taking his final conversations with the man into consideration, Coogler decided that it was best to keep moving forward with the project.

• Daniel Kaluuya was set to return as W'Kabi but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with Nope (2022).

• Ryan Coogler has stated that making this film without Chadwick Boseman is the hardest thing he's ever done.

• Before being cast as Ironheart, Dominique Thorne initially auditioned to play Shuri back in Black Panther (2018).

• The Talokans are heavily inspired by Mesoamerican culture, primarily Aztec culture and the Aztec water god Tlaloc.

• In the Marvel Comics, Namor is ruler of the underwater realm of Atlantis. The filmmakers changed the name to avoid connections/comparisons with other versions of Atlantis (notably DC Comics' version and its own superhero king Aquaman (2018)), and so in the film the realm is named Talokan, after the Aztec underwater realm of Tlalocan.

• Director Ryan Coogler revealed that the sequel's original story was going to focus on T'Challa after the events from Avengers: Endgame (2019) with Chadwick Boseman reprising his role and stated that Namor was always the film's antagonist.

• Live-action debut of Namor the Sub-Mariner. There had been numerous attempts to adapt the character to film and television, all of which ultimately stalled. Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman began developing a live-action Namor TV series in the 1950s with Richard Egan eyed to star, but nothing came of it. Another Namor series was planned in the 1970s, but it was dropped due to similarities with Man from Atlantis (1977), which, ironically, was inspired by Namor. A Namor film was first announced in 1997 and spent the next two decades in development hell, with numerous writers and directors attached over the years. Universal bought Namor's film rights in 2002, which only further complicated adaptation attempts over time.

• In May 2021, Marvel Studios revealed the film's title as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which Ethan Anderton of /Film believed was a fitting tribute to Boseman since "Wakanda Forever" is the battle cry of the Wakandans.

• Wakanda Forever was originally intended to be used as the title of a potential third Black Panther film before the creatives decided to use it for the second film, with Moore stating that the title "felt right because it's a story about triumph through adversity. It's a story about legacy, it's a story about persistence, and Wakanda Forever says all of those things."

• As of November 20, 2022, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has grossed $288 million in the United States and Canada, and $258.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $546.3 million.In November 2022, Coogler and Feige were revealed to have discussed a potential third Black Panther film.

• In November 2022, Moore stated that the Disney+ series Ironheart would serve as a direct sequel to Wakanda Forever, with Thorne returning to reprise her role as Riri Williams. Ironheart is set to premiere in 2023.