Obviously spoilers lie ahead as we discuss ‘Black Panther’ and the two post credits scenes from the movie…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
SPOILERS LIE AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN BLACK PANTHER
‘Black Panther’ opened in theaters nationwide on Friday and if you already saw the movie, you know that there were two post credits scenes that not only teased a sequel but also tied the film back into the next major Marvel production with ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ opening in May.
Marvel is notorious for setting up whatever comes next through these post credits scenes and ‘Black Panther’ is a shining example of that methodology with the two brief clips that air after the film is finished.
Let’s start off with the first post credits scene that picks up just moments following the end of the movie
WAKANDA BECOMES A GLOBAL FORCE FOR GOOD
A big part of the theme of ‘Black Panther’ was the ideology that the small African country of Wakanda was shut off from the rest of the world by choice as they were actually one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth thanks to the massive reserves of the valuable metal Vibrianium that they had been mining for decades.
T’Challa’s father T’Chaka fought to keep Wakanda hidden from outsiders while sending spies out into the world to ensure that their nation was left alone from all the bickering and issues that tore other countries apart. Add to that, the former king of Wakanda wanted to ensure that his country’s most valuable resource never got into the wrong hands.
Meanwhile, Erik Killmonger, who was the son of T’Chaka’s younger brother, returns to Wakanda with a new plan for the nation. He wants to use the advanced weaponry and technology to go out into the world and free his brothers and sisters from oppression after centuries of being treated poorly around the globe. Killmonger’s methods might have been frowned upon but his willingness to use Wakanda’s resources to help his people still managed to inspire T’Challa and along with his ex-girlfriend Nakia, he decided on a new course of action by the end of the movie.
So the first post credits scene shows T’Challa speaking to the United Nations where he reveals that Wakanda isn’t the third world nation the rest of the world believes it to be but instead they are a thriving community with technological advancements that are far greater than anything science has comprehended beyond their borders.
Between this revelation and T’Challa arriving in Oakland at the end of the movie with plans to purchase several buildings to open the first ever Wakandan outreach center in the United States, it appears he’s planning on helping as many people as possible under his reign as king.
Because Wakanda has stayed a secret for all these years, T’Challa’s decision will undoubtedly have wide reaching ramifications, which will likely play a major part in whatever plans are in motion for a future sequel.
THE WHITE WOLF
The second post credits scene is a direct tie in to ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ as we get a glimpse of ‘The Winter Soldier’ aka Bucky Barnes for the first time since the end of ‘Captain America: Civil War’.
At the end of ‘Civil War’, Cap takes Bucky to Wakanda where he’s put into cryo-stasis in hopes that the scientists there can help remove the mental conditioning he received from Hydra that turned him from an American soldier into an assassin hell bent on reeking havoc on the world.
In the post credits scene we see several Wakandan children waking up a man living in a village somewhere in the country before Bucky Barnes emerges from the tent, dressed in African garb and still missing one arm.
There’s he’s greeted by Shuri — T’Challa’s sister and the chief scientist in Wakanda responsible for all these technological advances. The kids in the village all refer to Bucky as ‘the White Wolf’ while he thanks Shuri for all her hard work in curing him.
Obviously it appears that Shuri was able to help Bucky break free of the mental conditioning he received from Hydra and he’s now living as a full time member of the Wakandan society. Now the name ‘White Wolf’ is an interesting moniker given the relation to another character from the Marvel Universe.
In the comics, a boy named Hunter crash lands in Wakanda alongside his parents, who are killed in the wreckage, and King T’Chaka decides to take him in and raise the child as one of his own. Because he was a foreigner and white, Hunter was treated with disdain and suspision as he grew up in Wakanda but the boy eventually gained the trust of the people and even rose to the ranks as the leader of the Hatut Zeraze, which is the Wakandan secret police force while he’s also given the nickname ‘The White Wolf’.
Now in the comics, Hunter becomes a fierce rival to T’Challa and eventually left the country to become a mercenary after the secret police force was disbanded but he still stayed loyal to Wakanda.
It seems that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that Bucky’s transformation from the Winter Solder into the White Wolf means he might be taking on a similar role in the movies.
If you watch the trailer for ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ you will see Bucky fighting alongside the Wakandans in battle, which seems to play into his new job as a protector of the country and a direct tie-in from the post credits scene in ‘Black Panther’.
