Marvel Studios’ President Kevin Feige has shared his opinion that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be the most important film that Marvel has produced. This new film is a sequel to the 2018 blockbuster Black Panther in which the late Chadwick Boseman played King T’Challa of Wakanda. Boseman, who tragically passed away in 2020, will be honored in the upcoming film. Boseman passed away before the sequel got underway.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shows Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) grieving the loss of T’Challa while facing a new threat, Namor (Tenoch Huerta), who comes from the hidden undersea kingdom of Talokan.

Due to the fact that this film is a sequel to one of the MCU’s most successful solo films as well as a tribute to Boseman, the expectations for the film are incredibly high. Of course it’s success remains in the hands of the audiences, but Marvel Studios feel very strongly about how the film came together.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler made a featurette about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that showed what the weight of the sequel will bring to audiences.

According to Fiege, “All of us very much believe that this feels like the most important movie we’ve ever made. That is what every crew member focused on every day, and none more so than Ryan Coogler at the helm of it all.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is important to viewers for many reasons, the main one being grief. While the film is remembering Boseman, it’s coming from a post-pandemic moment where many people lost someone close to them due to Covid. People will resonate with this film on that level. And while fans have their opinions on how Marvel should have processed Boseman’s passing, the future of the Black Panther franchise will depend on how well the sequel is received.