Following the success of its theatrical release, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now Marvel’s most-streamed movie on Disney+.
It’s official – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has become Marvel’s most-watched movie on Disney+.
According to Variety, the sequel swiftly earned a spot on Nielsen’s list of the most streamed movies within a week, with 2.269 billion viewing minute within its first five days on the service. Across all streamers it ranks third, just behind Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2.886 billion) and Hocus Pocus 2 (2.725 billion).
Since its release in theaters in November 2022, the Black Panther sequel has received widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades. To date, Wakanda Forever has won 18 awards, including a Golden Globe for Angela Bassett, the first actor in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to receive such an honor. Bassett’s performance as Queen Ramonda also earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, one of five awarded to Wakanda Forever at the 95th Academy Awards, which will be held on Mar. 12.
Black Panther’s Success Across the Board
Following the film’s success, Bassett credited Wakanda Forever for providing her with the representation she sought as an aspiring young actress and expressed gratitude for acting in a film that primarily featured black women. “That representation that I longed for when I was a young actor coming up? To be able to offer that, to be given the opportunity to offer that, is a dream come true,” she said.
Wakanda Forever paid tribute to previous Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in August 2020 after a prolonged case of colon cancer. Instead of recasting the titular character Marvel Studios elected to write him out of the franchise and have Shuri (Letitia Wright) take over the mantle. However, Wright revealed that Marvel’s original plan was for T’Challa and Shuri’s Black Panthers to co-exist in the MCU, with Shuri fighting alongside her brother while wearing her own vibranium costume. “It was bittersweet,” Wright said. “Shuri was always gonna do it. But it was gonna be done in a different way where her brother was gonna be alongside her, really explore that, like the comic books, the ways that T’Challa and Shuri would be Black Panther alongside each other and try to figure out how to defend their nation.”
Director Ryan Coogler recently revealed that never-before-seen footage of Boseman from the first film was used in the Black Panther sequel. The scene, which was shown in the film’s emotional post-credit scene of Shuri mourning his absence while alone on the beach, depicts Boseman looking out at Wakanda. Speaking with Wakanda Forever’s cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Coogler stated, “That was one of my favorite shots then that we didn’t get to use in the movie.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now available to stream on Disney+.