WARNING: Massive spoilers ahead for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”
Wakanda has lost her king, and heading into “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” there was one overarching question: how will Chadwick Boseman’s shocking death be addressed in the storyline?
Many wondered if it would come at the hands of an enemy, having T’Challa die protecting Wakanda. It would make sense, given the nature of the MCU and Boseman’s role in it. But, when it was revealed that the original story for “Wakanda Forever” would see T’Challa mourning and dealing with the time he lost as a result of the blip, dying in battle became a little less theorized.
No one was totally sure how it would happen; the only certainty was that T’Challa would die in the story, and a new Black Panther would take over.
Well, as it turns out, the film stayed pretty true to life. In theaters now, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” doesn’t see King T’Challa doesn’t die as a result of some epic battle with a Marvel villain, succumbing to injuries. He dies because of an unnamed disease — one that he knew about and struggled with, but didn’t tell many people about.
In the opening minutes of the film, we find Shuri (Letitia Wright) frantic in her lab, attempting to create an artificial heart-shaped herb. She tries various combinations, asking the AI she created for the “confidence rate” on each possible genome sequence, but the best she can manage is under 30%.
Still, she prints it, hoping to reach her brother as his heart rate steadily drops. It’s devastating to watch in seemingly real time, knowing for a fact that she will not succeed. And, in the end, it’s her mother that informs Shuri that her brother has joined the ancestors.
At no point is it explicitly stated that T’Challa dies from cancer — they refer to it only as a disease — but the implication is clear. And as Shuri notes, by the time T’Challa came to her with the news, it was too late for her to genetically engineer something that could save him. It seems the only people who actually know of his condition are Nakia and presumably his son, T’Challa Jr., who is revealed in the mid-credits scene at the end of the movie.
It’s unclear how much, if any, time T’Challa got with his son, thanks to a confusing timeline resulting from the blip, but according to Nakia, T’Challa prepared his family for his untimely end, and they were able to make their peace and say goodbye privately. In fact, that private memorial for T’Challa is why Nakia wasn’t present at his funeral in Wakanda; the two had agreed it wasn’t the right time for their son to be revealed yet.
In the end, Ryan Coogler and his team kept T’Challa’s sendoff almost exactly as it was in Boseman’s real life. He kept his diagnosis private, even from fellow “Black Panther” co-stars and colleagues, and quietly fought as long as he could.
