Michaela Coel has been added to the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Time to speculate who the I May Destroy You star is playing
Film News Michaela Coel
Marvel Studios is still keeping a tight lid on details about its Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but we now know another major star will be joining the cast. Variety reported this afternoon that Michaela Coel will appear in the film. Coel reportedly joined director Ryan Coogler at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios recently, but as always with the MCU, we have no information on who she’ll play.
Coel makes a great addition to the cast, as she’s become an actor and showrunner to look out for. Her Emmy-nominated series I May Destroy You—which Coel created, wrote, directed, produced, and starred in—became one of the most talked-about TV shows of 2020. She also met success with her previous series Chewing Gum, which she also created and starred in, and which gained an international fanbase after it was acquired by Netflix. Between those series, Coel starred in Tinge Krishnan’s adaptation of the musical Been So Long, and portrayed a member of the Resistance in Star Wars: Episode VIII—The Last Jedi.
As for the rest of the Wakanda Forever cast, though they haven’t been confirmed, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, and Angela Bassett are expected to return for the sequel. After Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020, the film’s executive producer Victoria Alonso denied rumors that he’d be digitized in Wakanda Forever, saying that since “our king has died in real life,” Marvel will be “taking a little time to see how we continue the story.” Boseman will be heard as the voice of T’Challa in Disney+’s upcoming animated MCU series, What If…?
As for who Coel might be playing in Wakanda Forever, we can only speculate. But it is worth pointing out that the weather-controlling mutant Storm had a relationship with Black Panther in the comics—maybe Coel can help bring the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
32 Comments
everyone’s expecting storm but i doubt it. although, i would be totally down for her as storm!
I’m still hoping they consider Lashana Lynch for Storm. I know she’s already Maria Rambeau but it wouldn’t be the first time that Marvel recast an actor in another role. She’s regal, athletic and intimidatingly charismatic.Bet she would look great with a Mohawk too.
I always thought Samira Wiley would be good, especially if we’re talking punk Mohawk Storm
I like Wiley. Wouldn’t be upset if she was cast as Storm at all. I just like Lynch a little bit more. But given the fact that she has already been in the MCU, that’s mostly wishful thinking.
After the last couple X-Men movies I’m fine without seeing mohawk Storm for awhile.
Wont there be an uproar if the actress isn’t Kenyan? And also not able to control the weather.
Yes, she should be Storm, because Storm had a relationship with T’Cha… oh dang just made myself sad again.
She’s not gonna be Storm. You’re looking for either Madam Slay or Aneka here.
I’m not deep in the lore, but I could see her being very effective either as a villain or as Storm. Maybe as a whole different character being a mentor for Shuri if Shuri goes through the classic hero’s journey of rejecting her new responsibilities in her grief. Either way, glad she’s involved. Wakanda Forever is going to be really tricky to get right in balancing honoring Boseman with everything else an MCU movie has to do, and I think Coel is a particularly deft creator with heavy subjects.
No love for Princess Zanda, rogue royalty from a competing nation, international criminal and relic thief? I keep hoping she’ll show up, mainly because I think she’d make a great antagonist for the Dora Milaje, her constant self interest clashing with their unswerving sense of duty.
You know what… you’re alright.
Storm could be cool but if I had to guess, if we see Storm in this movie, it’s going to be the back of her head in the post credit scenes. A young woman(teen or 20s) looking over a dry land, raises her hands, her white hair wiping back as she brings rain That’s my perfect intro at least.
Actually now that I’m really thinking about it, we could be seeing a Namor support character here, if that rumor is true. She could be Namora, Namorita, Dorma, or even a villain like Llyra.
Wildest idea: she’s a variant of T’Challa, like Sylvie to Loki. I genuinely don’t know if you could pull that off in a respectful way, but it would 100% be interesting.
I can’t help pointing out that there’s a certain actress involved in the Wakanda side of the MCU who recently revealed herself to be an anti-vax, transphobic asshole, just like a certain other actress in a certain other Disney-owned franchise just got fired for. So we may well just be seeing the new Shuri.
Its terrible that people have views outside the norm. Fire them all.
I doubt that. Gina Carano is a loud and unrepentant repeat shit-stirrer, which isn’t a great ongoing story for Disney. Letitia Wright made one video questioning vaccination and then went quiet. I think she’s comfortably in Chris Pratt, it’s ok if you keep your views on the DL, territory.
She didn’t just go quiet, she put out an apology, almost definitely an attempt to buy back Disney’s good graces. Carano put out an apology and then immediately shit on the apology, too.
She put on an “apology” after doubling down and yelling about being cancelled. And her only apology was basically saying “It wasn’t my intention to offend anyone, I was just raising questions about what’s in vaccines.”
Which would matter if it was about whether you or I would accept her apology, but, if it’s about her viability as an actress for Disney, she’s probably fine as long as she just keeps her mouth shut. Which she’s done.
Letitia Wright isn’t able to understand the plain explanation about basic bio research and is reaching for the bible instead. Classic repugnant “thinking”. I couldn’t work with such a moron for five minutes and can’t believe she was in so many projects I’ve seen (Humans, Cucumber) or want to see (Death on the Nile). I remember her roles and wasn’t impressed, she is no Angela Bassett! But maybe it’s just Covid related stupidity – she needs help, a psychiatrist.
FWIW, she won’t find ‘Lucifer’ anywhere in any modern English translation. The word lucifer appears exactly once in the KJV Bible, where it is is the morning star as a metaphor for a Babylonian king (which may or may not itself be a metaphor for Satan’s fall).
Maybe, but they started filming three weeks ago and there hasn’t been word of replacing Wright as Shuri. In contrast to Carano, Wright hasn’t been doubling down on the whole thing, and apparently quit social media months ago after some mild backlash to her comments, so there evidently hasn’t been enough noise for Disney to disrupt things by making a change.
If they choose to adapt some of Ta’Nehisi Coates’ stories, she could play the villain Zenzi.Also, I know it may be controversial to say, but I really think they should have recast T’Challa. As great as Boseman was, I don’t think it would be sacrilege. It’s just going to so odd to make a Black Panther movie without T’Challa and I can’t see what the explanation for his absence would be.
same. it’s weird to have a movie named after a character and that character is not in it. i assume they’ll show his funeral at the start of the movie and exposition in the eulogy.i’d love to see shuri as black panther. i think she’d fit so well with the 2nd era avengers.
See, I think having a major MCU character die offscreen is worse than just getting a new actor for the role. I know there’s a lineage of Black Panthers, which helps a potential transition, but it’s too soon to just move on from the character of T’Challa after one movie. We haven’t even seen him be (undisputed) King for more than half a film.
I guess it’s super lucky that there’s a history of other Panthers, so it’ll be an easier transition, but yeah. My money is on Nakia becoming the new Panther, even though in the comics it’s usually Shuri. Shuri already has a pretty defined role in the MCU , while Nakia was in a personal shift at the end of the first one.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much Loki, but part of me thinks Michaela Coel is going to be playing a T’Challa variant. That way they can provide more closure for losing Boseman’s version, but they won’t just Darrin from Bewitched him, which I think a large number of people would find disrespectful regardless of your perspective.
After watching Black Widow, I have a wild theory – in his third-act villain monologuing, Dreykov said “I can make or break kings.” Based on that, I immediately wondered if he got a Widow into the Dora Milaje. Darker thought still: whoever she is assassinates T’Challa.
This would be a cool potential plot point and all, but again, how to do depict an assassination of T’Challa? It would have to be offscreen or some title card that he died like he’s Poochie, which would be terrible.
Yeah, it would be hard to do right, no question.
I hope this is a strategy to gauge the public response to not having Black Panther in a Black Panther movie and they change their minds, because yes that would be awkward and I probably wouldn’t watch it. I so wish they had not already used Michael B. Jordan and killed him off because in my mind he would be perfect, although seeing how Johnathan Majors filled out a tshirt in Lovecraft Country, he would be an interesting choice too.
Ooh could she be playing Namor??