So without question, Marvel’s Black Panther was an achievement of a film, mixing in african culture with comic book action, while also tying into sociopolitical issues of the past, present, and in today’s world, the future. And one of the characters that helped push that is N’Jadaka also known as Erik Stevens, also known as Killmonger. But at the end of the movie, he met his end at the hands of his cousin, T’Challa aka the Black Panther.
But now the question arises: was his character a one-off? Did Michael B. Jordan play such an amazing character only for him to be killed off? No, as rumors have surfaced that Killmonger will return in the upcoming sequel for Black Panther. But how do you bring him back, and make it mean something? In this free update of Downloadable Content, I have two ways and both lead into something really cool for the character.
Press X to Start.
Resurrection Option 1: Atlantis
This scene was my biggest clue that Killmonger was coming back to the MCU. This is the mission report scene about 35 minutes into Avengers Endgame and is the scene where Black Widow is talking to Rocket, Nebula, Okoye, Captain Marvel and War Machine as Black Widow is now the defacto leader of both Shield and the Avengers. During this scene, Black Widow brings up earthquakes in the Atlantic and asks Okoye about it. Okoye dismisses it by saying they will handle it by not handling it. Later in the same scene, Steve aka Cap comes in and says he saw a pod of whales in the Hudson River.
Now, one mention involving the Atlantic Ocean is one thing, but two in the same scene? That was a tie-in, and why I think Endgame wasn’t a finale, but a setup movie (story for another time). The reason I think Okoye dismissed this is because she doesnt want anyone to know about Atlantis, including her own king, T’Challa.
A while back I said that T’Challa’s story is akin to Thor in that in their four movies, they have a similar theme: The sins of the father fall upon the son. And in this case and based on this, Not only is T’Challa is to Thor as Loki is the Killmonger, Atlantis is a sin of T’Chaka for T’Challa to bear.
Here is the setup: Wakanda would not be hidden without the help of Atlantis. And vice versa. There is no way Shuri made the cloaking tech by herself at the age of 5. And there’s no way that Vibranium would be with Border Tribe for no reason. So T’Chaka made a deal: Wakanda will supply Atlantis with vibranium and cloaking technology to repay Atlantis for helping them hid from the world. And the combination of Black Panther, Infinity War and Endgame ruined that deal. Remember, T’Challa has now opened Wakanda’s borders to the world, somewhat negating that deal with Atlantis unbeknownst to them in Black Panther. In Infinity War and Endgame, the king of Wakanda is dead and seeing how half of the universe was wiped out with the snap, that means that Atlantis lost people too. But in that, a new king rose in Namor. See I believe that Rocket’s explaination of the snap releasing a massive surge in energy gives birth to this universe’s mutants and Namor will arise as the first mutant (until of course, Apocalypse shows up). He will wage war against Wakanda, and as an F you to T’Challa, he will resurrect Killmonger, who wanted to be buried at sea.
Now there is a way that story ends, which I’ll bring up at the end.
Resurrection Option 2: Alternate Timeline
Black Panther 2 is currently set to take place AFTER Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (say that five times fast). With that being said, lets play with the full sandbox now, and since Marvel likes to mix it up with their characters, lets say that Killmonger is transported to the main realities Wakanda. But this isnt the Killmonger of the MCU, where he is a former CIA operative that tries to commit terrorism on a grand scale. Instead, lets go bigger and bolder.
Killmonger is the King of Wakanda in his universe and T’Challa is the villain. I mean, if we are being completely fair. most people dont see anything Killmonger did in the movie as wrong, based on how society treats black men and men of color.
I think at some point in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, there will be a point where all the univeses blend together and are somewhat stuck, so the MCU is stuck with the Fox Marvel Universe, and the Spiderverse Universe and the Netflix MCU and the Fantastic Four Universe. And once the movie puts everything back together, remnants of certain pieces will be stuck to the main MCU, giving us the X-Men and Fantastic Four now in the MCU.
You do this so you can add intrigue into the film. Is this a ruse or can Killmonger be trusted as an ally? Is it really an alternate Killmonger or just a resurrection? And on that same note, if Killmonger is good, can he live with himself knowing what a version of him did in this reality and can he trust T’Challa after his battles with him?
Now where do I see this leading for Killmonger?
The Ultimate Mandalorian Strike Back
I can explain this picture.
In a second.
Regardless of either option being done, Killmonger will be in the next Black Panther movie. But I think you cant just let a character such as him go to waste by being just in the films. For me, regardless of which option they take, a Killmonger show done in the style of The Mandalorian mixed with the flavors of Starz’ Strike Back would be amazing. Killmonger was the military training to where it would work, and after BP2, it would give him the redemption arc akin to what Loki got over the Thor movie series.
You can also look at his series as a way of tying up loose ends his movie and the world itself hasn’t answered. Such as Hydra soldiers, the MCU criminal Underworld, etc.
Now, this picture. Marvel isn’t dumb, in fact, they have done an amazing job of tying in stories to bigger things later on. It didn’t dawn on me until I heard the announcement for WandaVision that they planned on having an adult Spectrum aka Monica Rambeau (the little girl from Captain Marvel), that I figured that they are going to do a second team movie in space. And when did revelation happen? Right after Spiderman: Far From Home, when its realized that Nick Fury is leading a team of Skrulls in space. And thats where Killmonger comes in.
If we are translating this photo over into the MCU, we have two of the five already (three if you count Captain Marvel being apart of the team). Killmonger can replace T’Challa on the team, Spectrum is already there, Blue Marvel and Miss America have to be introduced (wont be surprised if that doesn’t happen sooner or later) and to replace Captain Marvel you can do one of two options: Ghost from Ant-Man and The Wasp, or Valkyrie, as she is going to want to be in action.
Not only by doing that do you have a cast led by Samuel L. Jackson, but you have a team of black and afro-latino characters being a badass team in space.
But thats just my Downloadable Content, this update is free of charge. How do you think they will bring back Killmonger? Let me know down below.
JayTezla's Nerdvana 