Who’s back and who’s new in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Queen Ramonda has always carried herself with dignity and the royal stature befitting her station, no matter the tragic circumstances. And there have been a lot of them in her life. She’s now lost a son as well as a husband, leaving her as the sole ruler of Wakanda in a new era for the kingdom. With its technological advances becoming public knowledge, the queen must be even more protective of Wakanda’s valuable resources. Not to mention her daughter, the only family she has left.

Shuri takes the loss of her brother especially hard and deals with it in her own typical way—by diving into her work. Grief may change how you look at the world but it doesn’t fundamentally change who you are. It’s a lesson she’ll need to remember as she faces new threats and challenges. She may have some unexpected help from the most unlikely of places, but Shuri’s journey of self-discovery has only just begun.

Losing the king she swore to protect is also a great blow to Okoye, not just from a professional standpoint but a personal one as well. As general of the Dora Milaje, her duty is still to ensure the safety of the royal family wherever they may go, from the chambers of the United Nations to the streets of Boston to the shores of Wakanda itself. She takes her responsibilities seriously, but she’s not above making a tossed-off quip from time to time. It’s one of the things that continues to make her so endearing, and we look forward to seeing Gurira back in action, wielding her trademark spear.

In a film with a lot of memorable performances, Winston Duke’s M’Baku stood out in Black Panther as a fan-favorite character due to his offbeat sense of humor and mighty screen presence. He returns in the new film as an ally to the throne and leader of the fiercely independent Jabari Tribe. His faction of powerful warriors will be a crucial part of Wakanda’s defense strategy when it comes to protecting the kingdom from the toughest adversary they’ve ever faced.

Each of the women in T’Challa’s life lost something different. Ramonda lost a son, Shuri a brother, and Okoye a king. Nakia lost the love of her life. Like the others, we expect she’ll have her own unique way of processing her grief. That path may take her away from Wakanda, but no matter how far she travels, she always seems to find her way back to her homeland. Hopefully, it won’t take too long, since her skills as a war dog may come in handy when it comes to tracking down certain mysterious individuals who have recently made themselves known.

Martin Freeman will also be back as the CIA operative Shuri likes to refer to as “Colonizer.” It’s always good to have a loyal contact inside the American intelligence system who owes you a life debt that can never be repaid. He may prove useful to the Wakandans should they need to determine, say, the identity and whereabouts of a particular American scientist with a special set of engineering skills. Ross has proven to be trustworthy in the past, even when walking the line between the demands of his job and the safety of Wakanda, but the same can’t be said for all of his colleagues and associates.

If you want to know about and his background in the film, you can read our explainer, which dives into his history and the changes made to his comic origins. In summary, the Namor we meet in Wakanda Forever—whose name is short for el niño sin amor (the boy without love)—is either a god or a king (depending on who you talk to), but essentially he’s the supreme ruler of the lost tribe of Talokan, an underwater realm hidden from the outside world. He has no love for surface-dwellers and will stop at nothing to keep them out. That becomes more difficult with the discovery of a new strain of vibranium at the bottom of the ocean. If only there was another kingdom in a similar situation that might be willing to form an alliance.

Coel, who was devastatingly good in the 2020 TV series —which she wrote, directed, and starred in—has said that she took the role of Aneka in this film because the character was written as queer. As has become typical in the MCU, though, the references to Aneka’s sexuality in the film are fleeting and hardly essential to the plot. Still, Coel makes a great addition to the Dora Milaje and gets some action scenes in a cool suit. She can’t help but stand out when she’s supposed to blend in, but that’s what makes her fun to watch.

We also have an explainer on , if you want to know more about her and her comic origins. Long story short, she’s a genius engineer who grew up tinkering in her dad’s auto shop and worked her way up to a scholarship at MIT. After one of her inventions gets her into hot water (or maybe very cold water) with numerous interested parties, she gets a couple of unexpected visitors with an offer she’ll find hard to refuse. Marvel has already given the green light to a solo Ironheart series for Disney+, so although this is our introduction to the character, it certainly won’t be the last we see of her.

We don’t know much about these two Talokanil characters beyond what they look like and the fact that they are leaders in Namor’s army. With their blue skin, water-breathing apparatuses, and organic accessories made from various sea creatures, they make quite an impression. And likely pretty formidable foes. We wouldn’t want to run into them on a dark beach at night.