When Kevin Feige took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year, fans began to see where the Marvel Cinematic Universe was going. Three more years of stories would build up to the Avengers showing down with Kang the Conquerer and eventually a take on the popular Marvel storyline Secret Wars. Along the way, new heroes like the Fantastic Four and Deadpool will join the mix along with established characters like Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Then there’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is out on Friday. It adds a whole new layer to the equation. Literally. Deep below the surface of the world, far away from prying eyes, a group of people called the Talokan exist and have for centuries. The new film will explain some of the hows and whys to that but, speaking to Gizmodo, Marvel executive and Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore confirmed there’s more to come from this subterranean powerhouse, lead by one of the earliest mutants in Marvel Comics history, Namor the Submariner.
“This isn’t a one-off story with Namor or the world of Talokan. Obviously, well maybe not obviously, they will have a presence moving forward,” Moore said. “This movie asks a really compelling question, which is, ‘Hey, if they’ve been hidden for so long and now somebody knows about them, what’s their response?’ And how does their introduction impact how Wakanda is seen on the world stage? And I think that’s a really fun narrative thread to continue to pull on because Wakanda finds itself in a much different position geopolitically than it did in the first movie. They were initially seen as sort of this backwater nation only to be revealed that they have all this stuff. Well, now they have all this stuff that people want. That’s going to affect the fabric of the MCU going forward.”
Of course, a quote like that creates more questions than it answers. So the Talokan will have a presence moving forward. Great. But, are they now only tied to the world of Black Panther because of the conflict in this movie? If Namor survives, is he friend or foe to the Avengers? And if Thanos wasn’t a big enough threat to bring the Talokan out of hiding, what power could? All questions we’re likely to get answers to in the next few years.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens Friday.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.