Wakanda Forever's multiple problems and delays. Does it make sense to continue producing this movie?
Since Chadwick Boseman's death, I don't think this project should have continued. However, the King of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, decided to continue along to honour Boseman's memoir.
The problems started by choosing an heir for T'challa's mantle since recasting actors is not something that Marvel Studios likes to do. We have seen a few recast within the MCU. Most of them caused me a lot of confusion. Some examples include The Hulk that moved from Edward Norton to Mark Ruffalo. Second James Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, was portrayed by Terrence Howard and later by Don Cheadle. Last but not least, Iron Man's father, Howard Stark, was performed first by Dominic Cooper and later by John Slattery. Since the MCU's marketing strategy is based on Easter Eggs and rumours, changing the actor won't be beneficial but confusing for the franchise's future.
So the next option was giving T'challa's powers to someone else in Wakanda. Given the popularity of Shuri in the previous films, she was selected to take the lead in the movie. I think this was the first mistake.
It is ok if they want a female Black Panther now, for diversity reasons; however, Shuri was not a good option. First of all, in the comics, Shuri has animal morphosis abilities; in the MCU, Shuri is just a brilliant girl that knows how to create gadgets. Second, the Shuri character was not as developed (and brave) as Okoye performed by the Zimbabwean-American actress Danai Gurira or Nakia performed by Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o.
Further to Shuri's selection, the Guyanese-British actress Letitia Wright has been a pain to Wakanda Forever's producers. First, after Boseman's death, she started liking tweets supporting a recast on the character. She also liked another tweet that asked Marvel Studios to stop the development of Black Panther 2 against any logical contractual policy. There are a lot of questions following Marvel Studios' decision on why she was selected to take T'challa's mantle.
Second, Letitia Wright has been an anti-vaccine supporter. Since Wright is not an American citizen, she needed to have vaccination proof to enter the US. That cost Marvel a lot of time because the shooting of the scene of Shuri had to stop until she could resolve this issue.
Third, Wright had an accident in the set that damaged her shoulder. So she had to rest for some weeks before going back to filming.
The Wakanda Forever producers had to change the movie's final to reduce Shuri's screen time following these events. There were rumours on Letitia Wright being fired from the film, but this was not confirmed. However, her contract ends with this movie, and there is no renewal information.
The above is sad because it only means that they are creating another movie with a character whose story will finish here ―the way they did with Black Widow―. So what's the point? Will Shuri die in this film? Will they bring another Wakandan in the light? So many questions for a movie that is getting a lot of problems.