passed away in 2020<\/a> of colon cancer.<\/p>\nActors have been replaced in the MCU before (Terrence Howard\u2019s role in Iron Man was recast with Don Cheadle, for example), but this is different. Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler makes the right choice to retire the character, something that inadvertently spins the story in a bold new direction. Moving the action on a year, we learn that T\u2019Challa\u2019s mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) is now in charge, although Wakanda is vulnerable to raids on its precious resources \u2013 notably, Vibranium.<\/p>
While it was always thought that Wakanda was the only source of this rare metal, the turns out not to be the case when the US discovers a stockpile under the ocean surface. As Ramonda soon learns, this belongs to a hitherto undetected underwater nation, Talokan. The leader Namor (the superbly charismatic Mexican-born star Tenoch Huerta) evades Wakandan defence forces to pay Ramonda a visit, threatening dire consequences unless she and her people help protect this secret, Atlantis-like world.<\/p>\n
Together with T\u2019Challa\u2019s brainy younger sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) and the warrior-leader Nakia (Lupita Nyong\u2019o), they must navigate this delicate situation, which has already escalated after Namor issues a deadly sonic attack on the mining ship that is drilling for Vibranium. While the mantle of Black Panther must be upheld, the key to all this might be Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a student scientist who invented a Vibranium detector and, for good measure, an armoured suit that would make Iron Man proud.<\/p>\n
The scene where Shuri and Nakia pay her a visit on campus (barely bothering to blend in amongst the other undergraduates) is one of the film\u2019s more amusing high points. Coogler\u2019s film, co-scripted with Joe Robert Cole, may not be the wittiest MCU entry, but it has its moments. Witness the riposte made when a Wakandan spies a white character in handcuffs: \u201cA coloniser in chains \u2013 now I have seen everything.\u201d<\/p>\n