What’s most interesting about this trailer is how quiet and understated it is. There is no dialogue for the first minute, the atmosphere being carried by the music: a cover of “No Woman, No Cry” (originally from Bob Marley and the Wailers’, here interpreted by the Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems), who transitions halfway through Kendrick Lamar’s “Be Alright.”
When the first dialogue breaks out, it’s courtesy of Ramonda: “I’m the queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and my whole family is gone! Didn’t I give it my all?!” The end of this speech plays off a closer shot showing T’Challa’s mural; the text of the art translates to “The king lives and the panther…forever within us…”
Two things are clear from the teaser. Number one: this movie is a memorial to T’Challa, and by extension Chadwick Boseman himself. Second, instead of focusing on finding just one person who can step into their shoes, “Wakanda Forever” is a big picture. It shows how each of the previous film’s supporting cast handles the void in their lives. In other words, the main character is Wakanda itself, a nation mourning the loss of its king as the cast and crew of “Black Panther” mourn the loss of their leader.
