The trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever must be Marvel's best ever. In 2008, Marvel Studios launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Iron Man. Since then, the shared universe has grown at an impressive rate, never more so than in Phase 4. When the MCU began, it was seen as a grand experiment - but now Marvel Studios has become one of the biggest names in Hollywood, with incredible marketing to match.
Released in January 2018, Black Panther is considered among Marvel's greatest successes to date. It was the first superhero film to be nominated for Best Picture, and one of the few to win an Academy Award. It was also a cultural event, a transformative moment for Hollywood in terms of diversity and representation. Black Panther celebrated Black culture from its African roots through to modern hip-hop, and it had a massive impact on everything from music to fashion worldwide. Little wonder the film grossed over $1.34 billion worldwide, the first Marvel movie to break $1 billion that didn't feature Robert Downey, Jr. All this context naturally means Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the inevitable sequel, will face a huge challenge to prove itself a worthy successor - especially after the tragic death of star Chadwick Boseman.
There's a sense in which the Black Panther 2 trailer feels like a tribute to Boseman. It embraces grief and sorrow as one of its central themes, opening with a haunting image and swiftly moving on to show scenes from an African funeral. This perfectly channels the emotions of the cast and crew, who didn't just lose a colleague - they lost a friend, and they felt this movie was made in his honor. The trailer depends on a haunting rendition of Bob Marley and the Wailers' "No Woman, No Cry," performed by the Nigerian singer Tems, accompanied by stunning imagery that conveys an intense sense of emotion that's normally lacking in Marvel trailers - which usually depend upon spectacle and Easter eggs to impress viewers. There is literally only one piece of dialogue in the whole trailer, as Ramonda (Angela Bassett) cries out in grief and anguish. All this comes together to create one of Marvel's most powerful and impressive trailers ever.
Why Black Panther 2's Trailer Is So Good
Rather than focus on the story of the new Black Panther, the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continues to dwell upon the richness of its world-building. This approach was a major reason for the success of 2018's Black Panther, and the trailer promises it will continue to do so, even after Boseman's tragic passing. Most remarkably of all, Black Panther 2's trailer promises to develop another fictional country in the same kind of depth, with beautiful glimpses of the undersea kingdom ruled by Tenoch Huerta's Namor of Atlantis. Marvel appear to have moved their version of Atlantis to offshore South America, giving it a distinct aesthetic clearly developed from the Aztecs and the Mayans.
The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer is an absolute masterpiece, setting the film up to be a worthy successor - and a haunting tribute to Chadwick Boseman. Some of the shots included in the trailer have clearly been chosen purely for symbolism, with one beautiful image showing the throne room of Wakanda both flooded and burning - a moment that's sure to leave viewers who have fallen in love with Wakanda chilled. And yet, in spite of the sorrow and danger, the song choice - and the title - serve as a promise: Wakanda is forever, and "everything's gonna be all right." The trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever truly is Marvel's best ever, selling a film of emotional complexity by conveying its sentiments rather than its plot.
