Rihanna Enters Best Original Song Race With ‘Lift Me Up’ From ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” opens in theaters today in the US to close out Phase 4 for the MCU. But don’t expect the film’s worldwide box office numbers to reach those of Ryan Coogler‘s 2018 film.

**Spoiler Alert: This is an article for those that have already seen “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” If you have not, bookmark this page, turn around, see the movie and come back. Spoiler Alert end.** A dramatic meditation on grief, mourning, and healing, while also acting as an action-packed superhero look at how vengeance can consume us—not to mention all its geopolitical and ideological ideas of protecting one’s identities, traditions, and right to exist—Marvel’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is in theaters now and is a lot of movie.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” opens in theaters today in the US to close out Phase 4 for the MCU. But don’t expect the film’s worldwide box office numbers to reach those of Ryan Coogler‘s 2018 film.

Honoring the king. When Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer in August 2020, director Ryan Coogler reworked the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever script to write out the late actor’s character.

Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever got out to a $10.1M start in  17 international box office markets on Wednesday. This is ahead of continued offshore rollout through Friday and the sequel’s domestic debut on Friday (domestic previews start Thursday). 

While it’s unclear whether or not Ryan Coogler is going to return to direct another “Black Panther” film after the release of ‘Wakanda Forever,’ it has long been known the filmmaker is working alongside Marvel Studios to develop spinoffs for Disney+. Originally, it was revealed that the spinoff would be focused on the Dora Milaje, led by Danai Gurira’s Okoye.

There’s no line in ‘Wakanda Forever,’ the sequel to Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” (2018), as bruising and seething as “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage.” But emotionally, this somber ‘Black Panther’ sequel is just as visceral and lacerating and perhaps just as absolutist. And spiritually, there is great lineage to this bitter resignation about demise, pride, ancestries, the great depths below us, and the refusal to accept enslavement.

In anticipation of its release this coming week, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued its promotional tour with a historic premiere in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday evening. This was a major event — and the first time a Marvel movie has held a premiere locally — with a large group of talent, filmmakers and press on hand for the black carpet rollout. The sequel to the $1.348B grossing original pic played across multiple screens at Filmhouse Cinemas IMAX Lekki.

Remembering a legend. Two years after, Chadwick Boseman’s unexpected death, filmmaker Ryan Coogler is looking back at their final memories together.

Michaela Coel revealed her pride to be joining the cast of Wakanda Forever, as she took her place on the red carpet in London for the film’s European premiere.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hits theaters next weekend to wrap up Phase 4 of the MCU, and Marvel fans have lots of questions in the lead-up to the film’s release.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hits theaters next Friday to wrap Phase 4 of the MCU. And while that’s exciting for Marvel fans, another more serious ambiance hangs over Ryan Coogler‘s sequel to his 2018 film.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hits theaters next Friday and closes out Phase 4 of the MCU. But Ryan Coogler‘s sequel to his 2018 film is highly anticipated for several reasons.

A day after releasing the audio for “Lift Me Up,” her new song from the soundtrack of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Rihanna has dropped the official music video, and you can watch it above now.The video is a fairly simple thing — Rihanna just went to a beach somewhere and had a camera crew capture her looking emotional against a sunset and twilight sky. It’s interspersed with footage from “Wakanda Forever,” which will of course be its own kind of emotional, since the context both in the story and in the real world is the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020.The song is Rihanna’s first solo single since “Lemon” in 2017.Alongside Rihanna’s music, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” stars Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Leticia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, all returning from “Black Panther.” Tenoch Huerta plays Namor, the king of Talokan, joined by Dominique Thorne as future Ironheart RiRi Williams, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli. Ryan Coogler directed the film, which lands in theaters Nov.

Rihanna, the top-selling digital singles artist of all time, is back to add to that record. Tonight marked the release of the first single from the forthcoming soundtrack to the eagerly awaited film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” wraps up MCU‘s Phase 4 on November 11, and advance word from the film’s world premiere two days ago is very, very strong. No surprise there, as Ryan Coogler cooked up one of Marvel‘s best films with 2018’s “Black Panther.” But the film sees Coogler and its cast and crew face the death of star Chadwick Boseman last year, a difficult thing to manage for any film.