As fans are still in the dark on who the new Black Panther will be, people wondered if there will be another combat ritual for the title in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And apparently fans have mixed feelings about it.
The question was asked by Reddit user u/ThreeMadFrogs on r/MarvelStudios as they recalled one of the early scenes in the first movie. During T’Challa’s coronation, the different tribes of Wakanda were offered the opportunity to fight the Prince for a chance to receive the title of King. Only M’Baku and Killmonger challenged the prince, where only the latter won. Now, OP’s curious if another “challenge day” will happen in the second movie.
Fans gave mixed answers as to whether or not the people of Wakanda will battle for the title. On one hand, a fan said that you don’t need to have the title of “king” to have the powers of Black Panther. It’s just that T’Challa was the only known exception to the rule. However, in the film’s prologue, the first king of Wakanda also had the powers of the Black Panther. So maybe things have changed since then until it was T’Challa’s time to rule.
Fans theorized that the title of Black Panther will be passed down to Shuri. And since their next warrior is going to be a female, they believed that the other tribes might have the interest to challenge her. I wouldn’t be surprised if that is the case considering that in most shows involving monarchs such as The Crown and House of The Dragon, female leaders were somewhat frowned upon by the public.
And let’s not forget, during the first challenge, M’Baku pointed out that he wanted to challenge T’Challa as he had issues with Shuri handling all of Wakanda’s technology.
It’s known that the sequel will honor Chadwick Boseman after he did a phenomenal job playing the character before his death. And while nobody knows who is next in line to take up the mantle, fans hoped that the combat ritual ceremony would be addressed in the sequel.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever comes out on Nov. 11, 2022.