When an actor dies, the character typically dies with them. After an intense battle with colorectal cancer, “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman died just months after Marvel began filming for “Black Panther 2” in 2020. The biggest question walking into a movie theater this weekend is, “How can the film franchise succeed without the Black Panther?”

But in some brilliant, creative way, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and Director Ryan Coogler honor the cinematic fallen solider and his character, King T’Challa. We needed all 161 minutes of this film to bridge the treacherous journey from grief to glory.

“Wakanda Forever” is that ancestral guide for Black families, especially as it relates to losing a loved one, navigating the steps of grief, and honoring your loved one beyond the grave. Chadwick Boseman’s death transcend the role. The death of Chadwick Boseman is bigger than Black Panther and generates a deeper conversation about all the people we have lost over the pandemic (COVID-19 related or not).

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which opens in theaters on November 11, stars Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Lupita Nyong’o, and Winston Duke. Marked in Wakanda a year after King T’Challa’s death, the nation is still picking up the pieces from their shattered lives and protecting the land from outsiders who want to capitalize on their precious resource, Vibranium.

Wakanda’s future is compromised when a new nation, equipped with similar resources, tries to join forces.

This installment of Black Panther is “The Woman King,” “Power Rangers,” and your second favorite Marvel movie wrapped in a nice present.

The film’s other gift is the fluidity and self-expression of Black women—your obvious new generation of Black Panthers. Not place holders, temporary fixes, and lurking shadows, but these Black women carry the torch.

Read more at the New Pittsburgh Courier, ‘Wakanda Forever’ celebrates a new generation of Black Panther while honoring the old one