Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is finally hitting theaters.
If you need a quick recap of everything T’Challa and his fellow Wakandans have gotten up to
in the MCU so far, don’t worry, this video has you covered.
This is everything you need to know before watching Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther is first introduced to the MCU in the film Captain America: Civil War.
While the heroic Avengers are on a mission in Lagos, a catastrophic accident results
in the deaths of many civilians.
In response, the United Nations proposes the Sokovia Accords, which would control and regulate
superheroes.
King T’Chaka, leader of Wakanda, arrives for an international summit with his son,
T’Challa, to support the Accords, as many Wakandans died in Lagos.
While T’Chaka is speaking at the summit, a terrorist attack sets off a bomb which kills
the King.
T’Challa takes his father’s ring, which gives the wearer a powerful vibranium suit
in which to protect Wakanda with.
T’Challa swears revenge on his father’s killer, and discovers from security footage
that the man responsible for the bomb was the Winter Soldier, aka, Captain America’s
best friend, Bucky Barnes.
Except, the terrorist wasn’t actually Bucky, it was a man named Helmut Zemo who was attempting
to frame Bucky.
Bucky had been brainwashed decades prior and used as an assassin by the villainous Hydra
before Captain America was able to help his friend snap out of his commands.
Now, Captain America and his allies were attempting to protect Bucky and absolve his name, while
also strongly opposing the Sokovia Accords.
Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, forms a team of heroes who support the Accords to fight Captain
America and his allies.
T’Challa joins Team Iron Man in the fight, on his continued quest for vengeance.
Eventually, Captain America and the Winter Soldier confront Zemo and T’Challa discovers
that he was the true villain.
T’Challa arrests Zemo, then offers Bucky asylum in Wakanda, where their best scientists
could help deprogram him and rid him of his villainous brainwashing for good.
The story continues in the titular Black Panther film.
T’Challa returns to Wakanda to assume his father’s throne.
Wakanda is a nation that is secretly far more technologically advanced than the rest of
the world, but hides its technology and resources from the rest of the world to live in isolation.
Grown in Wakanda is a heart-shaped herb eaten by the nation’s ruler and Black Panther
that gives them enhanced physical abilities and allows them to enter the Ancestral Plane.
T’Challa’s allies in Wakanda include his mother, Ramonda, his younger sister, Shuri,
his ex-lover, Nakia, his friend, W’Kabi, and the Dora Milaje, an elite group of female
bodyguards and soldiers led by Okoye.
At the ceremony to crown T’Challa the new king, the leader of the Jabari Tribe, M’Baku,
challenges T’Challa for the crown in ritual combat.
T’Challa defeats M’Baku, but spares his life.
T’Challa’s first mission as King is to stop the villainous Ulysses Klaue, an arms-dealer
who has been stealing vibranium and other Wakandan artifacts and selling them to the
highest bidder.
Also on a mission to track down Klaue is CIA agent Everett Ross.
After T’Challa catches Klaue, he reluctantly hands him over to Ross.
And that’s when Klaue’s accomplice Erik Stevens, aka Killmonger, strikes.
Killmonger frees Klaue, and Ross is gravely injured while saving Nakia.
T’Challa is forced to choose between pursuing Klaue and saving Ross’ life.
Ultimately, he decides to race Ross to Wakanda, where Shuri is able to use their advanced
technology to heal him.
An elder Wakandan shaman, Zuri, then explains Killmonger’s origins to T’Challa.
Many years ago, King T’Chaka’s brother N’Jobu wanted to share Wakandan technology
with people of African descent around the world to help them conquer their oppressors.
When T’Chaka attempted to arrest his brother for disobeying Wakandan law, N’Jobu attacked
Zuri, forcing T’Chaka to kill N’Jobu.
T’Chaka and Zuri swore to each other to keep this death a secret, and left behind
N’Jobu’s son, N’Jadaka, who changed his name to Erik Stevens, became a black ops
Navy Seal, and earned the nickname Killmonger.
In the present, Killmonger murders Klaue and takes his body to Wakanda to prove his loyalty.
He then challenges T’Challa to ritual combat in order to claim the throne for himself.
In the fight, Killmonger defeats T’Challa.
Zuri tries to prevent Killmonger from murdering T’Challa, so Killmonger murders Zuri and
tosses T’Challa over a waterfall, leaving everyone to presume him dead.
Killmonger then assumes control over Wakanda and ingests the heart-shaped herb to give
him powers, while ordering the destruction of the rest of the crop.
Nakia manages to save one plant before the rest are incinerated.
Although many of T’Challa’s allies were against Killmonger, the villain earned the
support of W’Kabi and his army, whose mission was to follow in N’Jobu’s footsteps and
deliver Wakandan weapons to operatives around the world.
Nakia, Shuri, Ramonda, and Ross flee to the Jabari Tribe for aid, where they discover
that M’Baku has saved a comatose T’Challa’s life as repayment for sparing him in their
previous duel.
Nakia uses the last heart-shaped herb to heal T’Challa, who then returns to fight Killmonger.
As Black Panther and Killmonger fight, M’Baku leads the Jabari tribe and Okoye leads the
Dora Milaje in a fight against W’Kabi and his army.
Eventually, W’Kabi realizes the error of his ways and is defeated, calling for his
army to stand down.
In the fight between Black Panther and Killmonger, T’Challa manages to stab his cousin, mortally
wounding him.
Killmonger refuses to be healed, explaining he’d rather die as a free man than live
as an incarcerated one.
As T’Challa shows him the Wakandan sunset, Killmonger dies peacefully.
Following Killmonger’s death, T’Challa decides to reveal Wakanda’s true power to
the world, and creates an outreach program to help those in need.
The ultimate need comes in Avengers: Infinity War, when the villainous Thanos attempts to
collect all of the infinity stones, which would give him the power to destroy half of
the entire universe’s population.
The Avengers arrive in Wakanda with their android ally Vision, who was currently powered
by the Mind Stone, the final infinity stone Thanos needed to complete his mission.
As Shuri attempts to extract the Mind Stone from Vision, T’Challa and his Wakandan allies
join the Avengers in battle against Thanos’ army.
Ultimately, Shuri fails in extracting the Mind Stone, and Thanos claims it for himself.
Having collected all of the stones, Thanos snaps his fingers and wipes out half of the
universe’s population, including King T’Challa.
Five years later, the surviving Avengers devise a plan to defeat Thanos and bring back all
of their fallen allies.
The heroes travel to various points of time in the past to collect the stones before Thanos
can get his hands on them to perform their own snap.
Upon the successful completion of the time heist, Bruce Banner uses the stones to bring
back to life everyone killed by Thanos’ original snap.
T’Challa returns to lead his Wakandan army, including M’Baku, Shuri, and the Dora Milaje,
in the ultimate battle to save the world.
In the end, Thanos and his army are defeated once and for all, and T’Challa and his allies
are able to return to their home in Wakanda.
And that’s the entire story of Black Panther in the MCU so far.
Of course, in real life we tragically lost T’Challa’s portrayer, Chadwick Boseman.
Exactly how Wakanda Forever will handle his death and the mantle of Black Panther moving
forward remains to be seen, but by all accounts decisions were made with the utmost respect
and care for Chadwick’s legacy.
Let me know your thoughts on Black Panther and your hopes for his future in the MCU in
the comments below.
Thanks so much for watching, and I’ll see you in the next one.