What’s most interesting about this trailer is how quiet and restrained it is. There’s no dialogue for the first minute, with the mood instead being carried by the music: a cover of “No Woman, No Cry” (originally by Bob Marley and the Wailers’, here performed by Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems), which transitions halfway through into Kendrick Lamar’s “Be Alright.”
When the first dialogue breaks out, it’s courtesy of Ramonda: “I am queen of the most powerful nation in the world, and my entire family is gone! Have I not given everything?!” The ending of this speech plays over a closer shot showing the mural of T’Challa; the text of the art translates to, “The king lives and the panther … forever in us…”
Two things are clear from the teaser. One: this film is a memorial for T’Challa, and by extension Chadwick Boseman himself. Second, instead of focusing on trying to find a single person who can step into his shoes, “Wakanda Forever” is an ensemble picture. It shows how each of the previous film’s supporting cast is managing the void in their lives. In other words, the main character is Wakanda itself, a nation mourning the loss of its king like the “Black Panther” cast and crew mourns the loss of their leading man.