Doomsday Has A Brilliant Change

After taking over the mantle in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever following T’Challa’s death, Shuri is primed for a major role in Avengers: Doomsday. Letitia Wright’s character resumes her role as the Black Panther in the upcoming movie, and the first look at her return confirms a brilliant change to her suit.

The fourth Doomsday trailer focused on the Wakandans and Fantastic Four includes several glimpses of Shuri unmasked in a newly designed Black Panther costume. She’s joined by M’Baku (Winston Duke) as they visit Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and the rest of Talokan, notably in a desert landscape rather than their underwater kingdom.

At first glance, Shuri’s Black Panther suit largely resembles the one she wore throughout Wakanda Forever, with the black base and golden accents throughout. But a closer examination of the costume’s design reveals a subtle but significant update.

Black Panther’s Suit Highlights The Strength Of Wakanda & Talokan’s Alliance Going Into Doomsday

The part of Shuri’s new Black Panther suit that stands out against the former design is the hints of blue scattered throughout. Rather than all the accents being gold, some are now teal blue. This color is not of great importance to Wakandan culture based on what we’ve seen in the MCU previously, but it does suggest a connection to Talokan.

When Namor and his underwater people were introduced in Wakanda Forever, their blue skin was an obvious way to notice them. But, blue and green colors were also prevalent in most of their costumes. Namor’s necklace had blue pieces that were similar in color to what is now featured on Shuri’s Black Panther suit.

Shuri isn’t alone in incorporating blue into her appearance. M’Baku also has some of the blue accents. It even seems Namor has more black to his suit this time around; his staff also has hints of blue now. While this is a way for him to get closer to his comic look, the MCU could also explain that the color changes come from his alliance with Wakanda.

In this way, the leaders of Wakanda and Talokan are utilizing each other’s colors to show the strength of their relationship. The idea of them being great allies and going this far to express how connected they are makes even more sense when considering Namor’s final line in Wakanda Forever‘s ending:

The Black Panther is the most powerful person in the most powerful nation on the surface. But she has no allies. Now she has empathy for the people of Talokan. With this alliance, Talokan will be stronger than ever. The surface world will come for Wakanda and Wakanda will turn to us. Trust me.

He left that movie wanting to strengthen the alliance between Talokan and Wakanda, with him believing it would make his kingdom more powerful in the long run. That strong relationship could be made clear in many ways, but having both sides incorporate similar colors gets the job done with a simple visual cue.

The recurring color scheme now becomes a way for Wakanda and Talokan to feel like a united force in Avengers: Doomsday. Whether that is ultimately the case remains to be seen, as Shuri and M’Baku may have very different thoughts on the best path forward to save the universe than Namor, perhaps.