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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Movie

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

2022 • Action, Adventure, Drama

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

The people of Wakanda fight to protect their home from intervening world powers as they mourn the death of King T'Challa.

Overall Series Review

The film centers on the nation of Wakanda as its matriarchy—the Queen, the Princess, and the General of the military—grieves the loss of their King and must defend their sovereign state from external intervention. The primary narrative conflict pits the advanced, non-colonized African kingdom and a new underwater civilization of people escaping colonial violence against aggressive Western world powers who are attempting to steal the country's most valuable resource. The story structure is fundamentally built upon the historical relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, framing the majority-white nations of the West as the global antagonists driven by greed and a desire to oppress. The vacuum left by the male lead is immediately filled by highly skilled, instantly competent female leaders in every major role, including the new central hero. The film strongly emphasizes Black and Latinx representation against a backdrop of global white corruption, with a minor, easily overlooked inclusion of a lesbian relationship.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The entire geopolitical conflict is structured through an intersectional lens, positioning Black and Brown nations (Wakanda and Talokan) as victims of systemic oppression and colonialism perpetuated by Western powers. The plot exists to showcase the maliciousness of white-led Western governments, particularly the United States and France, who are depicted as greedy aggressors attempting to steal resources. Character motivation and morality are defined by their status relative to this colonizer/colonized hierarchy.

Oikophobia9/10

The film explicitly vilifies Western civilization, personified by the US and French governments, which are shown to be incompetent and driven solely by a desire to plunder resources from non-white nations. Wakanda, as the uncorrupted African nation, and the new antagonist nation, whose origins are rooted in escaping Spanish colonialism, are both celebrated as morally and spiritually superior societies. The Western 'home culture' is presented as fundamentally corrupt and a continuous threat to global peace.

Feminism8/10

The main cast and leadership roles are almost entirely comprised of hyper-competent Black women. The scientific genius, the chief military general, and the ruling monarch are all women who seamlessly assume the greatest responsibilities. The new central hero and Black Panther is a woman who instantly masters the new role and technology without significant struggle, fulfilling the ‘Girl Boss’ or ‘Mary Sue’ trope by necessity, while the few remaining prominent male characters serve a less central function.

LGBTQ+4/10

A queer relationship exists between two prominent female warriors in the elite Dora Milaje, as confirmed by an actress’s public commentary. The representation in the final theatrical cut is extremely minimal, consisting only of a brief, non-romantic gesture that is easily missed by most viewers and was excised completely for certain international releases. The inclusion is acknowledged but is not centered in the narrative or the main character's arc.

Anti-Theism3/10

The film's protagonist is a scientist who expresses open skepticism toward her nation's spiritual traditions and the Ancestral Plane. Her arc involves attempting to replicate the Black Panther-granting herb with science, rather than through faith and tradition, suggesting that modern empirical knowledge is a superior and necessary replacement for the spiritual foundations of her culture. There is no explicit vilification of organized religion beyond this internal secular versus spiritual conflict.