King Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) will recover from the most painful wound he sustained in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, according to fight coordinator Aaron Toney.
Toney assured fans that Namor’s ankle wings weren’t permanently damaged during Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s climatic battle, in an interview for the Marvel Studios: Assembled docuseries. “It was fun to play around with [Namor’s] wings, you know, special, sort of like, quick attacks. Or him boosting,” he said.” But also, [the filmmakers] said, ‘Can we rip the wings off?’ They grow back, he’ll be fine, but it gives you an opportunity to humanize this God-like character and make him come to [Shuri]. And so that’s playing to Shuri being smart.”
As Toney’s comments allude to, the confrontation between Namor and Letitia Wright’s Shuri is a key component of the film’s finale. The pair establish a complicated relationship over the course of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with initial cuts of the film playing up romantic tension between Shuri and Namor. Editor Michael P. Shawver explained in a recent interview that this undercurrent was removed from the final cut in favor of portraying the Shuri/Namor dynamic as largely platonic. “[W]hat we ultimately focused on was Namor’s line where he says ‘Only the most damaged people can be truly great leaders,'” Shawver said. “And that’s planting the seed of the shared trauma that she realizes at the end [of the film].”
Black Panther 2’s Cut Subplot
This wasn’t the only dramatic change made to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in the editing bay. Shawver confirmed that he and co-editors Kelley Dixon and Jennifer Lame also excised a major subplot involving Namor, Shuri and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). Thorne recently provided fans with an overview of this abandoned material, which would’ve seen Shuri and Riri become friends while planning their escape from Namor’s undersea kingdom, Talokan. “[They’re] sort of siphoning off materials and supplies to rig their own distraction and get out of there. And while they’re doing that, just sort of talking about life experiences,” she said.
Director Ryan Coogler also touched on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s cut content in a recent interview, noting that he shot several scenes featuring Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine that went unused. “I got to work with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, which is awesome,” Coogler said. “She’s a lovely woman. Crazy funny. Some of the stuff she would do was too funny for the movie.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently streaming on Disney+.
