**Blah, blah, blah, spoilers, blah, “Infinity War”…you get the idea**
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably seen “Avengers: Infinity War” multiple times. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve lost quite a few hours to the latest Marvel Studios superhero film. And without a doubt, the best part of watching the film with an enthusiastic audience is the reactions to the film’s ending.
As the heroes begin to turn to dust, the audience goes through a wide range of emotions. When Bucky disintegrates, people are confused. Then as Black Panther attempts to help Okoye, but turns to dust, the audience has fully grasped what is going on, and audible gasps can be heard. The shocking nature of T’Challa’s “death” (let’s be real, he’s definitely NOT dead) was the moment where it all hit home that ‘Infinity War’ wasn’t going to have that happy ending. Then of course, everyone is devastated by the time Peter Parker begs to be saved.
However, if development and production executive (and “Black Panther” producer) Nate Moore had anything to say about it, T’Challa would have survived the infamous Thanos snap. Speaking to Huffington Post, the producer said he personally made a plea to the Russo Brothers to reconsider their plan to kill off the King of Wakanda.
“I knew pretty well what they were talking about and personally urged them to reconsider,” Moore said. “But the storytelling made sense, so I love that we got to see a little bit more of Wakanda in that film, and I hope to see how they’re going to resolve that.”
Without getting into the nitty-gritty of what is to come in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Moor explains that the Russos convinced him that killing T’Challa was the way to go. “Touching on all the different ideas you can have, you talk about the pros and cons of each, and they had some really compelling arguments as to why what happened happened,” Moore said. “I think ultimately it made for a really interesting, almost more complicated ending to that film because of how well ‘Black Panther’ was embraced by audiences. Again, personally painful, but I understand the reasoning.”
And as mentioned above, the second that Black Panther turned to dust, you were probably torn because the death was emotional, but you also knew that it wouldn’t last. ‘Panther’ has made over $1.3 billion globally and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has said publicly that there are sequel plans.
So, unless they want to make Shuri the next Panther (as was done in the comics), then it’s likely that T’Challa will be back in the land of the living soon enough.
