With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on the cusp of no doubt killing it in theaters this weekend, the MCU fandom’s hype over meeting the latest protector of Wakanda is at an all-time high. The mystery of who will be taking over King T’Challa’s mantle has been raging for years now, but the question is finally about to be definitively answered. Still, whoever it is, we can rest assured that it won’t be the craziest take on the character in the history of Marvel Comics. For shame.
2018’s Black Panther comic series from Ta-Nehisi Coates and Daniel Acuna broadened the scope of the BP mythos by introducing the wild idea that Wakanda’s reach had secretly extended into the stars. When Alpha Flight explorers sent into outer space by T’Challa fell through a temporal anomaly, they emerged 2,000 years into the past and established an empire in honor of their homeland.
The result was the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, and it’s most notorious ruler was Emperor N’Jadaka, as named after Erik Killmonger. Sent on a suicide mission by the previous Emperor, who feared he would overthrow him, N’Jadaka survived certain death thanks to an unlikely ally—he bonded with a Symbiote that hated the Emperor just as much and the deadly duo teamed up to make the old king’s fears a reality.
When a new Black Panther was needed in the MCU, many fans hoped that Michael B. Jordan would come back as a redeemed Killmonger to snatch up the honor. However, the majority agreed this would be too much of a left-field idea. Well, given that, don’t expect this Venom Black Panther to ever become a thing either. Apart from the fact that the Venom rights rest with Sony, Marvel doesn’t seem all that interested in connecting its Wakandan mythology to the cosmic side of things.
Catch the sadly Symbiote-less Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in cinemas from Nov. 11.