Everyone is so focused on the big reveal of the new Black Panther at the end of the latest Wakanda Forever trailer that they may have missed a glimpse of another Black Panther earlier in the clip.
The key word here is may. You can see the evidence for yourself below. Slow down the trailer and freeze frame it at 1:29. You’re looking for the shot of Namor slamming his weapon into the ground. In the background of the frame, all the way to the right, is a Black Panther…
Here is a freeze-frame (admittedly, a sort of blurry one):
A Twitter user noticed this Panther by slowing the trailer down to .25 speed. They’re convinced it’s “another“ Black Panther, different from the one at the end of the trailer.
For sure, there are differences between this shot of Black Panther and the one at the very end of the trailer. Most obviously and importantly, this “second” Panther behind Namor doesn’t have the white dots around the eyes and on the forehead of the helmet that the Panther at the end of the trailer has. Here is a high-res shot of that final Panther reveal.
For sure, the Panther helmet in that shot with Namor is not identical to the one in the last shot of the trailer. But, we’re also not sure that means there’s a “another” Black Panther in this movie. When you put the images of the two Panther helmets side by side, they do look very similar. The one from the Namor shot is missing the white dots on the forehead and around the eyes, but all of the other details, like the gold accents on the eyebrows, forehead, and cheeks, are present. And none of those details appeared on the Black Panther helmets worn by T’Challa or Killmonger in the first Black Panther film.
The two helmets are close enough that we suspect that “second” Panther is the same one revealed in the last shot, but for some reason, is shown in that shot behind Namor in a slightly different helmet. It could be that Marvel changed the female Black Panther’s costume late into production (which does sometimes happen) and that the earlier version didn’t have those distinctive white dots. Or maybe there really is a second Black Panther in this movie! (Fans are already speculating about the possible return of Killmonger in the film.) We here at ScreenCrush are we’re pretty skeptical about that — at least based on this shot alone.
Ultimately, we just don’t know — and we won’t know for sure until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11.
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