Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a very emotional movie, and one that should leave tears in the eyes of even the most hardened fan. Late in the sequel, Namor attacks Wakanda and floods the throne room, trapping both Queen Ramonda and Riri Williams below.
The latter is left unconscious, prompting the Queen to drag her through the water to safety. Unfortunately, the exertion behind that heroic effort means Ramonda drowns in one of the Black Panther follow-up's most shocking, heart-wrenching moments.
Talking to Rolling Stone, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever writer Joe Robert Cole was asked how the team working on the blockbuster decided to kill Angela Bassett's character.
"When we were working through the narrative and the story, we were looking at how each of our characters might be impacted by T’Challa’s loss," he explains. "And the person closest to him, the person that felt like they would be affected the most, was Shuri [Letita Wright], his sister. We started to look at her arc and the journey we wanted her to take."
"She takes, I think, an incredible journey on this through this film. Thinking of who she was in the first film, I’m really proud of how she has evolved and grown as a character. At the beginning of this movie, she’s the smartest person in all of Wakanda and yet she can’t save her brother. How does that affect someone?"
"We started to work through that journey of where she would be, her anger, her frustration and her pouring herself into her work," Cole continues. "You think back to her point of view on the mystical side of Wakanda, how she’s more about science than she is about the ancestors and the ancestral plane."
"That exploration of her journey and her journey with her mother — who has lost a son, who has lost her husband, and who is dealing with grief and trying to help Shuri through that grief — we felt like it would be tremendously impactful to Shuri, and obviously to the nation, for Ramonda to be lost in the flood. How Shuri pivots off of that, and how Wakanda will pivot. From there, it launches M’Baku. It launches our characters in new directions."
It was Ramonda's death that prompted Shuri to become Wakanda's new Black Panther, while the closing moments of the movie also confirmed that M'Baku is the nation's new King.
Bassett's work in the movie has been widely praised, with all signs pointing to her receiving a "Best Supporting Actress" Oscar nomination. While the character will be missed, Ramonda's demise looks set to be incredibly important for how Wakanda continues to develop in the MCU.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.