Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now available on Disney+ — and apparently it’s just as popular there as it was in theaters last fall. According to Disney, the Marvel sequel has already become “the most-watched Marvel film premiere on Disney+ globally, based on hours streamed in its first five days.”
Given the breadth of Marvel movies that have been released on Disney+ since the service debuted in 2019, that’s a little surprising. But note that this “most-watched” title is a measurement of “hours streamed” — and Disney+ has a lot more subscribers now than it did a few years ago when something like Avengers: Endgame premiered. More subscribers means more eyeballs to potentially watch more hours, which could be one reason Wakanda Forever has become the biggest Marvel premiere (not to be confused with the biggest Marvel Premiere) on Disney+. (The fact that it’s a good movie with some great performances — including an Oscar-nominated one from Angela Bassett — probably doesn’t hurt either.)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever follows the heroes of the African nation of Wakanda in the wake of the tragic death of the Black Panther, King T’Challa. The story mirrors the situation behind the scenes of the film, which was totally reconceived following the death of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman in the summer of 2020. After T’Challa’s death, Wakanda must find a new leader to accept the mantle of Black Panther while fending off an attack from Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and his underwater nation, Talokan.
You can see some of the changes that the film underwent during production in the film below:
You can watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, along with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, on Disney+ right now. The next MCU movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, premieres in theaters on February 17.
Sign up for Disney+ here.
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