As Black Panther: Wakanda Forever nears its release date, the highly anticipated sequel has reportedly locked in its runtime, and it’s going to be a long one. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wakanda Forever will run for two hours and 41 minutes, making it the second longest Marvel movie behind 2019’s massive “The Infinity Saga” climax, Avengers: Endgame.
Of course, the long runtime tracks for the ambitious aim of Wakanda Forever. On top of mirroring the real life death of actor Chadwick Boseman by forcing the characters to grapple with the sudden and tragic loss of T’Challa, the film will also set up an epic conflict between the nation of Wakanda and Tenoch Huerta’s Namor. In the comics, Black Panther and Namor have always been bitter rivals, and Marvel fans have been waiting to see that clash play out onscreen ever since the first movie. (There was a bit of a rights issue with Namor, but that has clearly been ironed out.)
“He’s a dream antagonist,” Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler recently told Empire while also confirming another surprising detail: Namor will be a mutant just like in the comics. This will mark the MCU’s second dive into the mutant world following the season finale of Ms. Marvel which confirmed the young hero is also packing the X-factor gene.
So just to reiterate, Wakanda Forever will honor Boseman’s death, presumably line up a new Black Panther, unleash Namor, and bring more mutants in the MCU? No wonder the movie’s almost three hours long.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11, 2022.
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)