Directed by Ryan Coogler, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole, the film stars Letitia Wright as Shuri / Black Panther, alongside Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Martin Freeman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Angela Bassett.

Plans for the film changed in August 2020 when Black Panther star and T'Challa actor Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer, with Marvel choosing not to recast his role.

Feige also confirmed that the role of T'Challa would not be recast, and said the sequel would explore the world and characters of the first film as a way to honor the legacy that Boseman helped build.

[71] In February, Daniel Kaluuya said he was unsure if he would reprise his role of W'Kabi;[72] he ultimately did not due to scheduling conflicts with Jordan Peele's Universal Pictures film Nope (2022).

[91] Carter worked closely with Marvel's visual development team and art department to design Shuri's Black Panther costume, sketching out ideas based on the character's appearances in the comics.

[102] A long time collaborator of Coogler's, Morrison planned to return for Wakanda Forever but was unable to due to a scheduling conflict with her film Flint Strong (2024) caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[107] In August, Isaach de Bankolé was set to reprise his role as the Wakandan River Tribe elder,[35] and Dominique Thorne began filming scenes for Wakanda Forever as Riri Williams before starring as that character in the Disney+ miniseries Ironheart (2025).

[42] Lake Bell, who previously voiced alternate universe variants of Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow in What If...?, was revealed to be appearing in the film in late October.

[34][32] Additionally, Robert John Burke was revealed to have been cast in the film; both him and Bell were confirmed to be playing a pair of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials named Smitty and Graham, respectively.

[135] Aaron Toney, who served as fight coordinator on Wakanda Forever, confirmed that Namor's ankle wings are capable of growing back after a scene in the film showed one of them being cut off by Shuri.

[140] Perception designed the film's main-on-end title sequence, which depicts Shuri's funeral clothes being burned to reveal a Black Panther suit underneath.

[142] In late November 2022, Wētā FX supervisor Chris White revealed that Marvel Studios created a 200-page Talokan bible for the film that contains details about the kingdom such as its history, battle strategies, tools built, architecture, influence, and other elements.

[143][144] The next month, Shawver revealed that the film originally had a four-and-a-half-hour cut that included additional scenes featuring Talokan and the developing relationship between Shuri and Williams, as well as a subplot involving the two of them teaming up with Namor to accomplish an unspecified task.

[146] Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Prologue, a soundtrack extended play, was released by Hollywood Records and Marvel Music on July 25, 2022, and includes Tems' cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry", which was used in the film's teaser trailer, "A Body, A Coffin" by Amaarae, and "Soy" by Santa Fe Klan.

[155] Feige, Coogler, and the cast promoted the film at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con alongside a live performance from singer Baaba Maal, tama player Massamba Diop, and other African drummers and dancers and the debut of the teaser trailer on July 23, 2022.

Both Leah Simpson and Giovana Gelhoren of People called the footage "powerful",[158] while Sandra Gonzalez of CNN felt the teaser commemorated Boseman's performance and wrote "amid the grief that permeates the preview, there's hope, the birth of new life (literally) and a glimpse at the future, with a clawed sneak peek of a new suited hero".

[160] Variety's Carson Burton and J. Kim Murphy felt the teaser focused on who would "take on the mantle" of Black Panther, noting the presence of a mysterious figure at the end of the trailer.

[164] Coogler, Wright, Duke, Bassett, and Huerta promoted the film at the 2022 D23 Expo with exclusive footage, which Aaron Couch from The Hollywood Reporter described as a "gripping sequence".

The minute-long ad was directed by Malik Vitthal and shows Williams working on her Mark I Ironheart suit concurrently with a group of young Black girls creating with Lego.

[173] Three episodes of the series Marvel Studios: Legends were released on November 4, 2022, exploring T'Challa, Shuri, and the Dora Milaje using footage from their previous MCU appearances,[174] while a 20/20 TV special entitled Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda hosted by Robin Roberts and featuring interviews with the film's cast was aired on ABC.

[188] Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $259 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it fifth on their list of 2022's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".

The site's critics consensus reads: "A poignant tribute that satisfyingly moves the franchise forward, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever marks an ambitious and emotionally rewarding triumph for the MCU".

[210] Tom Jorgensen at IGN gave the film 7 out of 10, stating that it was "an effective, emotional farewell to T'Challa—a meditation on forging one's own future out of a painful past—but with a plot that has to introduce an entirely new nation and pave the way for a new wave of Marvel stories, it does struggle under the weight of all that expectation".

[211] Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote: "The movie doesn't have the classic comic-book pow of Black Panther, and it's easily 20 minutes too long (we could probably have lived without the Talokan backstory).

[213] Peter Travers of ABC News commended the performances from Bassett, Wright and Thorne, but wrote the film's runtime "feels loooong, with dragged out battle scenes, excessive computer effects and way too much franchise building".

[214] The BBC's Nicholas Barber said that the sequel struggled due to the loss of Boseman, but commended the visual effects and Bassett, Wright, and Lupita Nyong'o's acting.

[215] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter felt that "[e]ven if the length feels overextended, Coogler and his editors deserve credit for allowing breathing space between the action scenes for character and relationship development, with Ludwig Göransson's African-inflected score enhancing both those quieter moments and the big smackdowns.

[216] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote: "Wakanda Forever winds up feeling hopelessly stalled, covering up an inability to move on by resorting to repetitive, over-familiar action sequences, maudlin emotional beats and an uninvolving, occasionally incoherent story".

There are some strong moments both in terms of character development (primarily for Shuri, who has the deepest and most compelling arc) and action (the car chase is perfunctory but some of the battle scenes are well-executed), but not enough of them.

[227] In November 2022, Moore stated that the Disney+ miniseries Ironheart would serve as a direct sequel to Wakanda Forever, with Thorne returning to reprise her role as Riri Williams.