Black Panther: Wakanda Forever POST-CREDIT Scene Explained

Hey everyone, I'm gonna break down the Post-Credit scene or should I say the "Mid" credit scene of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Now I have to warn you this blog will contain some extreme spoilers, so if you wanna experience it all in the theatres, I'd suggest you click away right now. But if plot leaks or spoiler leaks don't bother you much, then this blog will make you are extremely emotional.

Now before I talk about the mid-credit scene, let me give you a synopsis of the movie, so you better understand the context. But don't worry I won't spoil the entire film, only halfway through because I understand you're here for the post-credit scene breakdown, and not the entire film. It opens with a long take of Shuri trying to synthesize an artificial recreation of the herb to try and save T'Challa's life. We don't know until later that he was suffering from an unknown illness that he kept from those around him. So the story is a direct depiction of what Chadwick Boseman went through in his real life.

He had cancer and only his wife and close ones knew about it, nobody from Marvel, not even Kevin Feige knew about this. And it's the same for T'Challa, people around he didn't know that the King was fighting a battle of his own with no return. And I know a lot of people are complaining about this plot, why wouldn't Wakanda be able to cure Cancer, in a country so rich in resources? Well, they do address this in the movie.

Shuri tries very hard to save T'Challa at the beginning of the film, but her success rate is only 28%. Multiple other scientists at Wakanda try to convince Shuri that maybe she should just go be with him for his final moments, but she resists. And when she does come up with something, it's too late and the King has already left us! And this is basically how the movie starts. So right from the get-go, this is even more tragic than Avengers: Endgame, which took only 19 minutes to give us something to cheer for! But this film, my goodness, is a tragedy at its core! Then we have a 1 year time jump and that's when the story begins to move forward.

Now this 1 year, Shuri has become obsessed with innovating technology. Because of the loss of her brother, the fact that she is the genius that she is, and couldn't save T'Challa, is igniting the worst possible guilt inside her. While on the other end, Queen Ramonda is facing international pressure to share Vibranium with the rest of the world. Which is something she says they will never do because of the evils “they” are capable of. And we see this in the trailers too. This is also demonstrated by France essentially trying to steal Vibranium from a Wakandan research site. Lake Bell’s character has a ship that has located vibranium deep beneath the ocean surface, after it is confirmed, they’re attacked by Namor and his people.

Namor kills everyone aboard and it results in everyone in the know believing it was done by Wakandans. So this puts Queen Ramonda in an even worse position in the eyes of the U.S Government. Queen Ramonda then mourns T’Challa by going to a beach where Ramonda wants to perform a ceremony of burning their funeral attire, thus symbolizing they're coming to terms with T’Challa’s passing.

But Shuri refuses to say that if she thinks about her brother for too long, it will be the world that burns, not her clothes. Ramonda tells her when T’Challa died, she walked as far away as she could until she reached the water and sat and thought of him and at that moment she felt him next to her with his hand on her shoulder. But Shuri again rejects this, saying that’s a construct of her mind and T’Challa is truly gone. So Shuri is clearly in denial and is trying her best not to think of T'Challa too much, she is trying to dodge the tragedy as a means to get over it. Now fast forward to halfway through the film where Shuri gets taken to Talocan and there she remains a hostage.

I won't tell you why or how because for the post-credit scene, you don't need to know that. So to rescue Shuri, Ramonda finds Nakia who is running a school in Haiti and has been since the blip and begs her to find Shuri. Nakia reluctantly agrees and begins searching for leads to where Talocan is. Now, this is as much as I'll tell you about the movie, now that you have enough context. The movie ends with Shuri in Haiti, going to Nakia’s home to perform the ceremony of burning her funeral attire. So towards the end of the film, she has now come to terms with T'Challa's death and is now ready to perform the ceremony she once rejected. But she first sits alone on the beach, and begins to remember T’Challa and cries, and then finally burns her clothes.

And that's where the movie ends and that's exactly where the mid-credit scene picks up. It’s moments after Shuri burns her clothes. Nakia approaches and reveals her son who is about 5 years old. Nakia reveals that she had him before the blip and T'Challa is the father. And T'Challa and Nakia both agreed on their child to be raised away from the pressures of being a king. While initially shocked, Shuri has a very emotional response and begins bonding with him, happy to have a family again. Because remember Queen Ramonda dies in the film while trying to protect Riri Williams. The mid-credit scene then ends with this child revealing his Wakanda name is also T’challa.

So Nakia named her son after her husband. Now, I assume that he was named in tribute to his father who Nakia thought was dead due to blipping. Shuri cries but also smiles with Nakia. Let me just say it’s a fairly long scene and there’s no edge of “OH LOOK A NEW BLACK PANTHER”. It’s truly treated as an emotional end for the film. Now, this was emotional for me to see because Marvel wants to continue T'Challa's story. But they also don't wanna recast Chadwick Boseman, who quite practically made the character popular in mainstream cinema.

So Marvel is essentially recasting T'Challa but more respectfully. So in Black Panther 3, Nakia will essentially become her own Queen Ramonda and T'Challa Senior becomes his own T'Chaka. And Shuri would fulfil the same role as before but now as Aunt Shuri instead of a sister. It's the best compromise for honouring Chadwick and making T'Challa the one and true Black Panther forever as he should be. If T'Challa's son becomes the "new T'Challa" or "T'Challa Jr", and continues his father's intended arc, which makes them the same character. But with the utmost respect to Chadwick. And by the time Avengers: Secret Wars comes out, T'Challa Jr will be THE adult Black Panther due to time travel and whatnot, so he will essentially continue his father T'Challa's intended arc. And don't worry this movie doesn't have any bullshit studio agenda or anything.

Shuri doesn't become a better fighter overnight than Namor just because she's Black Panther now. The movie had a fine balance to it. Shuri does defeat Namor in the end but she does so using her intelligence and brain, not only by physical force. Because Shuri isn't a trained soldier, she's a scientist. But Namor is a true warrior, a king! So they do make the ending land quite nicely, where Namor remains on top physically but Shuri gets the better of him using her skills. And that's it, this would be my breakdown of the Mid-Credit Scene of Wakanda Forever.

Lemme know your thoughts on this and what you would have done in a situation like this. But as far as I'm concerned, I do feel this is one of the best ways to recast T'Challa to continue his arc while at the same time showing incredible respect for Chadwick.

I'll see you lads in the next one!