Next year’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to expand the scope of the standalone series, with the first film largely being restricted to the titular kingdom for most of the biggest story points. At the end of the movie, Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa opened the doors for his country to play a much bigger role on the global stage, something Ryan Coogler’s sequel will no doubt be expanding upon.
Avengers: Infinity War saw Wakanda play host to an epic intergalactic battle between Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and the forces of Thanos, while the Dora Milaje showed up in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, furthering the connection between themselves and Bucky Barnes, not to mention the creation of Sam Wilson’s Captain America costume.
Looking at the facts, it wouldn’t take a narrative leap of faith to imagine the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s premiere odd couple dropping by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In a new interview, Anthony Mackie was asked straight up if he was going to be involved, and in true Marvel Studios fashion, he artfully skirted around the issue.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. Literally, the show came out, and for the last episode, we had a Zoom party, like, with everybody. And that was it. Like I haven’t heard from anybody since, so I mean, Marvel have a million things going on. I know the prep for Black Panther 2 is driving everybody ragged, so I don’t know. I’m interested to see where it’s going.”
We’ve already heard chatter that the MCU’s freshly-minted Captain America would play at least a small part in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but even with shooting now underway, it’s hardly the sort of thing that would be confirmed almost a year away from release.
Then again, the Wakandans are widely expected to be dealing with the threat of Atlantis and Namor the Sub-Mariner, so there might not even be room for Captain America and Bucky Barnes in the story, especially when you consider the first installment was relatively light on Easter Eggs and surprise cameos from the MCU back catalogue.