Why BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER Is Not a Family-Friendly Movie
By Movieguide® Staff
Editor’s note: The following article contains major spoilers for BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER.
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER bridges the gap between the death of King T’Challa after actor Chadwick Boseman died, and furthering the Black Panther legacy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While appealing to adults’ sense of fantasy, it is not a movie for your whole family. Unfortunately, major worldview issues propel the plot and become a major focal point of the main character, Shuri’s, development.
Per the Movieguide® review:
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER opens with Princess Shuri of Wakanda praying to the Egyptian goddess Bast to help her cure her fatally ill brother, the Black Panther. She fails and loses her way. Shuri’s mother, the Queen, tries to heal Shuri’s grief and renew her faith in their ancestors. The Queen is interrupted when an immortal king with superpowers from an undersea Mayan kingdom appears. He threatens Wakanda with destruction unless it joins him in a war against the world’s leading nations.
BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER is well-produced and eventually promotes mercy and rejects revenge. However, the heroes and villains are not that interesting. Also, the movie has a pagan worldview promoting Non-Christian gods and ancestor worship. It also has an Afro-centric ideology that makes jabs at Christianity. The only way to end slavery, even happening today, is the good news of the Gospel, the paganism and revisionist history in BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER wont accomplish that.
If the ancestor worship was mentioned off-hand a few times, that could be forgivable. Instead, though, the movie relies heavily on the ancestors to push Shuri into becoming the Black Panther.
In one scene, the Queen mother describes an occult ritual in which she connects to her deceased son, causing a rebuke from Shuri, as Shuri feels like the ancestors have abandoned her.
While she initially rejects her mother’s belief in the ancestors, Shuri ultimately chooses to consume a hallucinogenic plant into order to gain superhuman strength and project herself onto the ancestral plane to meet with her mother or brother to seek wisdom. Neither of those relatives greet her, however, and she comes face to face with the original BLACK PANTHER villain, Killmonger. Killmonger appeals to Shuri’s bitterness and rage, and she takes on the Black Panther mantle with fury in her heart.
When Shuri reveals herself as Black Panther to the Wakandan elder council, they lay hands on her in a perverted form of prayer, interceding to the ancestors.
Furthermore, WAKANDA FOREVER’s antagonist, King Namor, is driven by his devotion to his ancestors to make his underwater kingdom the strongest in the world, with a goal to annihilate the surface nations. He speaks openly about his desire to please the ancestors, and he and Shuri appear to make a haphazard peace agreement based on their mutual respect for their ancestors.
While most of the movie is perfectly acceptable viewing for discerning teenagers and adults, these scenes merit excessive warning, thus the warning that it is not the family outing you want for your children this weekend. Cognitive development theory warns that children cannot process this information without great help, and viewing such an Anti-Christian worldview could negatively affect them.
Several previous Marvel movies have relied on overarching moral and biblical principles to facilitate their stories. Recently, though, in movies such as THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER and DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, Marvel is moving away from these inspirational elements.
Both of those movies ended up disappointing in the box office, proving that audiences don’t care for excessive content. These next few weeks will determine if BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER will suffer the same fate.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
