In the Absence of Black Panther, Is Wakanda Going to X-Men’s Storm?

It’s not just Black Panther that Disney is tied to. The company has put many of their eggs in the Wakanda basket — as a potential problem at the box office looms, a pivot may be on the way.

According to two sources provided to That Park Place writer, WDW Pro, it’s looking like Marvel’s MCU may be heading for a windy Wakanda in the future. One contact inside the merchandising industry is claiming that retailers are upset with Disney over the replacement of Black Panther with an all-female cast. That’s not due to sexism or misogyny, but rather out of a concern that the huge demographic of African American men and boys buying Black Panther merch is doing to be far smaller when it comes to buying his female replacements.

The following is a heavily paraphrased retelling of focus group findings from a merchandise partner with Disney:

Watching Black Panther was a great bonding experience for many black men and their sons. In groups led by a maternal figure, this came up as a male role model often took their son to the see Black Panther (and other movies featuring the characters), sometimes for multiple showings. And do you know where these father/son/nephew/grandson groups often went after the movies? They stopped by a retailer to buy a Black Panther toy, shirt, action figure.

The fear now is that the “Black King” theme that connected with so many multi-generational male relationships has been broken.

Another source connected with the MCU has confirmed that Marvel is aware of this issue, even if leadership chose to go this route in the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s passing. Now, they’re looking for a way to get away from the Wakanda Forever cast as leads (unless the movie blows away projections). In fact, the second source that confirmed what Pro was hearing, sent affirmation and more details while he was appearing with Valliant Renegade for their Sunday evening show:

For those wanting the Cliff Notes, Marvel may be considering a shift to connecting Strom from the X-Men with Wakanda in order to have a strong female lead that can still (expectedly) sell merchandise. The Storm character is perceived as far more popular, known and established than the other Wakanda characters which aren’t seeming to resonate with audiences. It’s not that we’re taking a position out of hand — Wakanda Forever is currently projected to make less than half of the original Black Panther’s revenue at the box office.

Though you may have seen headlines recently about how Wakanda Forever could have record-breaking first weekend numbers (and that remains the case), there’s a curious thing going on where this is projected to be one of the most frontloaded box office runs of all time. Can you imagine the movie nearing $200 million in its first domestic weekend but never making $500 million by the end of its run? That seems wild but it’s currently what Box Office Pro is offering as a potential reality.

There’s no sure answer as to what Disney will do with Storm and with Wakanda should Wakanda Forever pull low numbers in its full box office return. If Pro’s sources are right, however, they might try to salvage Wakanda via an X-Men tie in… keeping it female so as not to open the franchise to online criticism. It rings true given that Disney goes so far as to lump their employees of African descent into a support/employee group called “Wakanda”. That’s dedication.

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