Black Panther: the story so far from Civil War to Wakanda Forever

Marvel Studios' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever concludes Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). More than that, it's a salute to Chadwick Boseman's all-too-brief, but brilliant, tenure as comic book hero T'Challa aka the eponymous Black Panther.

We're all speculating as to who will take up the T'Challa's mantle. While we await that revelation with excitement and more than a little poignancy, we felt it necessary to recap the Black Panther journey so far.

From T'Challa's introduction in Captain America: Civil War through to the events of Wakanda Forever itself, here is the thrilling and emotional odyssey undertaken by one of the MCU's most memorable heroes.

 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR (2016)

• King T'Chaka of Wakanda is killed in a bombing at the United Nations where the Sokovia Accords are about to be ratified

• The accords essentially force the Avengers to take accountability for their actions after multiple civilian casualties during the battle of Sokovia in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

• T'Chaka's son and heir, T'Challa, vows to kill the person responsible, which appears to be the former Winter Soldier, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan)

 

 

• Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Sam Wilson/Falcon (Anthony Mackie) attempt to protect Bucky from T'Challa's wrath

• Rogers, Wilson, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elisabeth Olsen), Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) team up to capture the real bomber, Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl)

• T'Challa is later recruited by Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to join his faction of the rapidly splintering Avengers initiative and bring in Captain America's renegades with the authority of General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross (William Hurt)

• Team Iron Man is pitted against Team Cap during an explosive airport battle in Leipzig

 

 

• Having discovered that Bucky Barnes was framed by Zemo, Stark travels to the latter's hideout while secretly being tracked by T'Challa

• Stark's temporary truce with Steve Rogers and Bucky is shattered by Zemo's revelation that the once-brainwashed Bucky killed Stark's parents

• Stark and Rogers, who seeks to protect Bucky, engage in a fierce one-on-one battle

• T'Challa catches up with Zemo and prevents him from committing suicide, vowing that he will face proper justice

• T'Challa grants Bucky asylum in Wakanda

BLACK PANTHER (2018)

• Following the death of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa returns to Wakanda to assume the throne of the kingdom

• However, in order to do so T'Challa has to defeat his rival, Jabari tribe leader M'Baku (Winston Duke), in hand-to-hand combat

• T'Challa travels with members of the Wakandan special forces, the Dora Milaje, to Seoul to apprehend notorious arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis)

 

 

• Agreeing to hand Klaue over to the custody of Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), T'Challa is then attacked by Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan)

• T'Challa takes the injured Ross back to Wakanda, followed by Killmonger who brings the now-executed Klaue's body to the kingdom himself

• It's revealed that Killmonger is the son of N'Jobu, the late T'Chaka's brother

• N'Jobu desired to bring Wakanda's vibranium repository to the attention of the wider world, so that people could use the kingdom's weapons to fight back against their oppressors

• T'Chaka intervened and killed his brother in the process

• N'Jobu's son was left alive in America to maintain the lie that his father had simply disappeared without a trace

• The boy then grew up to be an elite Navy SEAL who later adopted the name Killmonger

• Revealing his true identity to be N'Jadaka, Killmonger asserts his claim to the Wakandan throne

 

 

• In a trial by combat, Killmonger appears to execute T'Challa by throwing him over a waterfall, allowing him to ascend to the throne

• As Killmonger vows to carry out his father's request, deploying Wakanda's vibranium-powered shipments around the world, T'Challa is revealed to still be alive

• In the Ancestral Plane, T'Challa confronts the spirit of his father over his involvement in N'Jobu's death, and his desire to keep Wakanda's abilities a secret from the wider world

 

 

• Now resurrected and commanding the loyalty of M'Baku's Jabari forces, T'Challa returns to challenge Killmonger to a fight to the death

• T'Challa overpowers Killmonger during a battle in a vast vibranium mine and the latter dies while lamenting the fact that his ancestors died in bondage

• T'Challa establishes an outreach center in Oakland at the building where N'Jobu died, to be run by Dora Milaje leader Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright)

• T'Challa appears before the United Nations to reveal Wakanda's true nature to the world.

AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR/AVENGERS: ENDGAME (2018/2019)

• In Avengers: Infinity War, the so-called 'Mad Titan' Thanos (Josh Brolin) seeks possession of the Infinity Stones so that he can obliterate 50% of all life in the universe

• Thanos' army plans to invade Wakanda where T'Challa has joined forces with the fugitive Bucky Barnes

• Shuri attempts to extract the mind stone from Vision (Paul Bettany) in order so that it doesn't fall into Thanos' hands and allow him to complete the Infinity Gauntlet

 

 

• Thanos arrives and uses the time stone, in the process reversing Wanda Maximoff's attempts to kill Vision by removing the mind stone herself

• With all of the stones in his possession and the gauntlet complete, Thanos snaps away 50% of all life and removes himself from the battlefield

• T'Challa is among those extinguished, along with the likes of Wanda, Bucky, Stephen Strange/Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Falcon and Peter Parker/Spider-Man (Tom Holland)

• His quest now complete, Thanos takes solace while watching the sunset on a distant planet

• in Avengers: Endgame, the newly reunited Avengers utilise the power of the Quantum Realm to move across time and claim the infinity stones before Thanos can possess them

• Their quest involves multiple tragedies including Natasha Romanoff/Scarlet Widow (Scarlett Johansson) who sacrifices herself in order so that Hawkeye can claim the soul stone

• Having returned from the Quantum Realm and arrived back in the present day, the Avengers place all of the stones into a newly created gauntlet and use it to reverse the effects of Thanos' snap

• Thanos arrives with his army and vows to use the stones to create a new universe

• However, Stephen Strange arrives through a portal, along with a host of other Avengers allies who were snapped, including T'Challa

• In the climactic battle with Thanos and his forces, Tony Stark sacrifices himself by using the new gauntlet to extinguish Thanos

• In what turns out to be his final MCU appearance, T'Challa is one of the attendees at Tony Stark's funeral standing alongside Dora Milaje warrior Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Shuri

BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (2022)

• Wakanda's inhabitants grieve over T'Challa's death, including, but not limited to, his mother Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and his sister Shuri

• The technologically savvy Shuri recruits a new assistant in the form of Riri Williams/Ironheart (Dominique Thorne)

• Question marks remain as to who will be the new incumbent of the Black Panther suit

• Wakanda must re-assemble itself in T'Challa's absence as the vengeful Namor (Tenoch Huerta) rises from his aquatic kingdom of Atlantis

• Namor believes that his people have been threatened by T'Challa's United Nations disclosure and desire for transparency, as seen at the end of Black Panther

• As Wakanda faces its more dire threat so far, new heroes will rise just as old ones are remembered

 

Consider yourself up to speed? Then click here to book your tickets for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The movie opens at Cineworld on November 11.