My Pitch for Black Panther 3

My Pitch for Black Panther 3

The Black Panther franchise is a very consistent franchise. Between the two movies, they have four Oscars and have grossed $2.2 billion at the box office. While a third 

the film hasn’t been announced, it’s very likely it will happen. But what would I do with a third Black Panther movie? How would I close out the trilogy? That’s what we’re talking about today, let’s get started! 

THE PITCH: So this movie is going to be the end of the Black Panther franchise. You find a way to really close things out, don’t end it for the characters have Shuri show up in Avengers movies. But as for the Black Panther franchise, this is the end of it. As I was envisioning all of my ideas for the film, I realized I want this movie to be big and epic. It’s the biggest movie of the franchise and it’s done in a way without using big CGI spectacle, it’s about aliens destroying the world with laser beams. But you feel this epic scope of all this out all war with Wakanda, Namor’s people, and the rest of the world. Very much have it continue the maturity of the previous two films, there’s jokes but they aren’t as flashy as other MCU movies. The title for this movie, I’m going with BLACK PANTHER: WAR FOR WAKANDA. Probably a pretty generic title, but I think it fits the movie. 

THE BEGINNING

• The movie will start off with a montage of where the world is after the events of Wakanda Forever. News reports are talking about this new Black Panther, everybody has different theories as to who it is. At the end of Wakanda Forever, Okoye broke Everett Ross out and so now Ross is viewed as this wanted criminal by the government. They know that Wakanda broke him out, so now Wakanda isn’t at the best place with the US government. Fleshing all of this out, explaining what the world is like after the events of the movie. One thing that’s said here, Black Panther hasn’t been seen since the events of Wakanda Forever. And Wakanda as a nation hasn’t made much of an appearance since. They haven't necessarily gone into hiding, but they also aren’t as public as they were before. Within the first few minutes of the movie, it sets the tone for the rest of the movie. It’s very much an exposition dump, but it’s done in a way that’s interesting. 

• From there, we’ll cut to Nakia’s village where T’Challa’s son, T’Challa is there. He’s a few years older and they’re just having peace time. The kids are running around and playing. Nakia is making sure that the kids aren’t staying out of trouble. It's a very happy time in this little village. Have T’Challa Jr. have some cute jokes in there, lighten the mood up a bit. From a distance, we’ll see lights coming towards the village. Pretty soon, we’ll realize that they’re government officers and you’re curious as to why the government is attacking a village like this. Nakia notices this and she’ll essentially get all of the children to safety. There’s some other skilled fighters there, Nakia is leading this attack on these soldiers. So we’ll get this action sequence as Nakia and the fighters are trying to save the kids in the village, it’s this cool dynamic action sequence. Very clearly, they have more high tech weapons then what the government normally has. In the middle of all of this, a masked agent will come out and start fighting with Nakia. Whoever this fighter is, they are very skilled and Nakia is doing her best to fight, but no matter what he does he does something to come out on top. Since Nakia is a spy, she’s sneaky and has one more trick up her sleeve. She manages to take out the other agents with the help of friends. In the middle of all of this, Nakia and her friends manage to defeat them of sorts, while they do get away. Then our Marvel Studios logo will appear on the screen. 

• We’ll cut to Wakanda, where Nakia and her friends have brought all of the kids to Wakanda. And she explains everything that went on to Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye, and Ross and they’re trying to piece together what exactly happened. In this sequence, we’ll learn what the dynamic of Shuri and M’Baku is. The end of Wakanda Forever, very much left M'Baku up in the air. I heard different theories as to what that meant, different people speculating what was M’Baku’s role in all of this. I didn’t want to spend part of the run time of the movie explaining what happened. Essentially we learn that Shuri is ok with being Black Panther and the tech genius, but doesn’t necessarily want to rule Wakanda. M’Baku is king of Wakanda while Shuri isn’t really the Black Panther. She’s really focused more on the science side of things. That connects into Shuri’s character arc in the movie. This will put the two of them in conflict with one another. We kind of learn  Where everybody is pointing fingers as to who they think it is, the common name starter in all of this Namor. Shuri has a different world view on Namor than everybody else. She was able to see the humanity inside of Namor, something that nobody else did. In Wakanda Forever, M’Baku was doubting Namor from the beginning. He was trying to talk the rest of the characters out of helping Namor. They come up with this plan where our characters are going to split up in different groups to figure out what’s going on. Shuri is going to go and talk with Namor to see what he knows about what happened. While Ross and Nakia are going to team up to go to the US to figure out what the government’s involvement with all of this is. 

• Shuri gets ready to leave on one of the ships, she turns around and sees M’Baku standing there. M’Baku believes that Namor is leading her into a trap, but knows no matter what he does she’s going to go anyway. M’Baku goes with Shuri to go see Namor. They get there, Shuri explains what’s going on. Namor is kind of playing coy with her, he’s both answering the question but also not at the same time. M’Baku is getting frustrated by this, and puts his hands  on him. He tells them, the person is from Wakanda. We get this mystery surrounding the entire thing now, our characters are trying to wonder what exactly happened. Also figuring out how much is Namor telling the truth and how much is he lying. Running parallel to this, we catch up with Julia Louis-Drefuss’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine and see what she’s up to. In Wakanda Forever, Richard Schiff plays the U.S. Secretary of State he’s going to return for this movie. In this scene, they’re presented as antagonists. They aren’t fully villains, but they aren’t fully heroes either. Ross and Nakia show up in there, they go undercover to see what they can figure out about the government’s involvement in all of this. 

THE MIDDLE ACT

• To kick off the middle act, Shuri will communicate to Okoye about what Namor said. Okoye’s role in this movie is going to be very different from her in the past. She was stripped of her rank in Wakanda Forever, she still wants to fight but obviously can’t. She has a conversation with Ayo, one of her Dora Milaje buddies through this. We get some banter between Okoye and T’Challa’s son. Have a sweet moment of Okoye sharing stories of his father. Okoye and Ayo head over to the Wakanda prison to see what’s up. They’re trying to figure out what’s going on and maybe the prison will have some answers. They head on over there and they stop by W'Kabi sell. W’Kabi was in the first Black Panther movie, he was played by Daniel Kauulya. He wasn’t in Wakanda Forever due to scheduling conflicts with Nope. He’s going to return in this movie, have this very interesting conversation between Okoye and W’Kabi as they used to be married, but after W'Kabi betrayed her they broke apart. In the process, we learn that W’Kabi wasn’t the one that attacked Nakia and her son. But we put the pieces together that he helped whoever did this, find Nakia and attack her. Essentially, we learn that Namor is also involved in all of this. There’s still one more mystery in all of this, who is the man that actually attacked Nakia? 

• Then we’ll get a flashback sequence that takes place before the events of this movie. When Namor sneaks into Wakanda, I’m not going to fully explain this but Namor knows about W’Kabi and what he did. We’ll see what that conversation between Namor and W’Kabi that started all of this. Essentially, Namor wanted to recruit W’Kabi to help take down Wakanda. But W’Kabi has this other idea of having him stay in prison, because he believes they’ll probably use W’Kabi to help what’s going on. In the process of all of this, they can lead them into a trap while they take over Wakanda and their resources. In the mix, W’Kabi mentions that there’s somebody important that Namor should get because they can help with Namor’s plan. We’ll get the extension of that where Namor and his man go to a grave and they dig up Killmonger. And we learn that Killmonger is the person that attacked Nakia at the beginning of the movie. You really get these twists and turns in the middle act and go in directions that people aren’t expecting. 

• Nakia and Ross are on their little adventure at the government, where they’re trying to figure out all of the information regarding the government's involvement in the film. In the process of all of this, they learn information that talks about how the government is working with Namor. Essentially, we learn that both Namor and the government want Wakanda’s resources. They know they can’t defeat them on their own, but if they work together they can defeat them much more easily. One of the things I want to focus on with these scenes is Ross being in conflict with this government. He joined the government because he wanted to help people, but now he learns that the government is going against everything that he believes in. He’s having a bit of an identity crisis. They’re scrambling to get this information to Wakanda to warn them about what’s happening, in the process Allegra de Fontaine shows up with guards and knocks them out. 

• Shuri and M’Baku return to Wakanda, Okoye and Ayo share the information that W’Kabi told them, they’re in Shuri’s lab. Shuri gets a message from Nakia, she opens it and we see that Namor and this masked man have Nakia and Ross captive. They’re trying to figure out what they are, so they decide to get the help of W’Kabi and figure out where they are so they can go and rescue them. You start to feel this tension if we know what Namor’s plan in all of this is. We know that our heroes are playing right into Namor’s trap, you build this tension as you know something bad is going to happen. Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye, Ayo, and W’Kabi head off on their mission. W’Kabi is there because he still needs to give the information as they get there. Our heroes arrive at the destination and are pretty quickly surrounded by hunters of Namor’s men and government agents. Get a fun action sequence where all of our heroes get their moment to shine. They realize they need to surrender, because there’s no way they can defeat all of them at once. They surrender and get taken into Namor’s chambers with this masked man there, we see Nakia and Ross in a cage near them. 

• During this sequence our heroes will learn about Killmonger’s return, our characters will learn about their plan in all of this. In the middle of all of this, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye, and Ayo will get knocked out and put into the cage with Nakia and Ross. Once again, just build this tension as our heroes are defenseless and they’re heading towards Wakanda and nobody is there to stop them. As our villains head to Wakanda, two of Namor’s men stay behind to watch them. While our heroes are in the cage, they start having conservation. In this scene, you have Shuri just break down as she realizes that this was all her fault. She thinks she should have listened to M’Baku that tried to warn him, she starts to doubt if she was right to become Black Panther. Have all of these moments where our characters are reflecting on what they did. You have M’Baku give some words of wisdom as to how Shuri has done a lot to help, and mentions how her family would be proud of her. Another piece of information that Ross and Nakia learned was that Namor does want Wakanda’s power, but he also wants to watch Wakanda burn to the ground. They realize they need to escape and get to Wakanda and save the day. With their skills, our heroes escape the cell and fight off Namor’s men. They get on their ship and they head back to Wakanda. 

THE THIRD ACT

• This is really where the title “War for Wakanda” comes into play. Everything that Namor, Valentina, Killmonger, and W’Kabi have been doing in this movie have been leading to this. Those four characters plus a big army arrive at Wakanda, they’re ready to take all of their resources and become powerful and strip Wakanda’s power from them and destroy it as well. They break into the palace, the Dora Milaje are watching the children from Nakia’s village. In these scenes, establish T’Challa Jr. as having leadership skills. He very clearly has the same strengths as his father, he’s a good leader. Dora Milaje fights off the army that they can, some of the Dora Milaje are taking the kids to safety. Our villains are making their way to the throne room and the mines to fully get all of the power from Wakanda. The Dora Milaje are fighting off who they can, get a great here comes the Calvary moment where our heroes show up to help stop the threat. All of the Wakandaian soldiers are ready for battle and go to war with the enemies. 

• Shuri and Okoye head to the throne room, and they start to fight our villains. Shuri and Killmonger duke it out for a bit, Okoye is fighting with W’Kabi but it’s meant to be this emotional fight, as we know what they’ve been through together. We know that they once met one another prior to the events of Black Panther (2018). On Shuri and Killmonger’s side of the fight, Killmonger is acting like himself. He’s basically explaining why he’s doing this, as it’s a continuation of his plan from the first film. He wanted to get the resources from Wakanda and put them into the rest of the world because of his childhood. He views Namor as the person to do that, but he’s blinded by Namor’s real plan in all of it. In the process of them fighting, she’s trying to explain to him what’s happening. Killmonger is so driven by his past and his motivation, that he’s not listening to what Shuri is saying. The sequence is cutting between all of our different characters. Have some dynamics between Ross and Allegra de Fontaine where you feel the history they have between them. Maybe you essentially have Ross quit, in the middle of all of this he quits working with the government. Because the thing that signed up for decades past, isn’t the thing the U.S. government stands for now.

• Shuri and Killmonger continue to fight, Killmonger is getting the upper hand. M'Baku gets a Calvary moment here, where he knocks out Killmonger. Shuri and M’Baku join Okoye, Ayo and Nakia as they head to where Namor is to stop his plan. Get this fun action sequence that’s a few minutes long of our heroes fighting Namor. Have a moment in here where Killmonger’s character arc is complete, he sees what Namor is doing and realizes that it’s kind of a bad thing. What his plan in all of this is, is the opposite of what Namor wants. In the process of the final fight, M’Baku does a sacrifice moment where he helps defeat Namor but in the process he gets stabbed and killed. Namor is defeated, Allegra de Fontaine is arrested and our heroes win. Have this somber moment where our heroes watch M’Baku die in their arms. You realize that the M'Baku sacrifice was part of Shuri’s character arc. Where she had a lot of self doubt at the beginning of the movie, she didn’t think she was fit to rule Wakanda after what happened in Wakanda Forever. But throughout the film, she realizes that she’s the one that saved everybody. She helped turn Killmonger from evil to good again. All of these different ideas present here as to what Shuri’s character arc is going to be. 

EPILOGUE

• In the epilogue, we’ll get M'Baku funeral and some people from his tribe are there. Also in here, we’ll get the trial of Allegra de Fontaine and the other dude (Richard Schiff’s character) and they’re sentenced to prison. Maybe you have Ross get a promotion and he does a press conference that says that the US government is now going to be working closely with Wakanda to help. It’s a conclusion of some of the themes started in the first movie. Maybe you have Killmonger here as the bridge, he’s working for the government but he obviously has access to Wakanda and he’s doing all of this for good now. 

• Also here, you have the resolution to Okoye and W’Kabi. I know I didn’t talk about them a whole bunch in this movie. They’re more present in the film then maybe I made them feel like. Shuri gives Okoye her rank back, W’Kabi is still hanging out; he's not in prison. 

• Have some fun moments between Shuri and T’Challa Jr. in here, maybe Shuri hints at training him now to start becoming the next Black Panther. I wanna try and find a way to close out this trilogy in an emotionally satisfying way. Maybe you have Shuri have a dream and she sees her parents, have a scene where they interact. Have a shot where you see somebody walk up, we don’t see who it is. But the Wakanda music with the drums starts playing, except a much slower version of it. We all know it’s T’Challa, we don’t see his face. But it’s implied that it’s Wakanda and we get a family reunion. 

MID-CREDIT SCENE

• It’s an MCU movie so of course there has to be a credit scene. The scene starts off with Ross in his office, Shuri joins him in the office. They talk about the progress that’s been made since Ross’ speech and promotion. Have Ross say “somebody wants to help with this”, she turns around and Sam Wilson is standing there. Set up this future dynamic between Shuri and Sam, as Sam works for the government and he’s going to be apart of the helping process in all of this.