Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is an epic emotional story of two worlds, Talokan and Wakanda, fighting to control their future kingdoms. However, amid all the emotional moments in the much-anticipated Black Panther sequel, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most profound revelation hits in the mid-credit scene.
There, we meet T’Challa and Nakia’s son Toussaint T’Challa (played by Divine Love Konadu-Sun). Although the secret Wakandan Prince’s future reign has not been established, for those who are wondering whether or not T’Challa ever had kids in the comics, the answer is yes — and no.
The two things that comic book lore always toys with are time and death, and T’Challa’s history within Marvel comic book continuity is no different. Although in the main comics timeline (identified as “Earth-616”) T’Challa is alive and well, he does not have any heirs. However, T’Challa has had multiple children in alternate comic book timelines and they have been every kind of being, from mutants to zombies.
Almost all of T’Challa’s progeny have X-Men’s Storm as a mother. This is a testament to the work of award-winning writer/director/producer Reginald Hudlin, who created the marriage of T’Challa and Storm in Black Panther Volume 4: #18 (2005) — the wedding of the millennia, even by Marvel standards. Unfortunately, their canonical nuptials didn’t last very long, but the impact of this epic team-up lasted through multiple writers, timelines, and universes, and the characters still share a close relationship in the comics that is felt today. The only place Storm and T’Challa’s connection has not been seen is onscreen in the MCU.
But how might the introduction of Toussaint T’Challa impact the MCU? If we take a closer look at the variations of T’Challa’s lineage within the comics, we can see plenty of lore to choose from if Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director and co-writer Ryan Coogler is looking for inspiration for a third Black Panther film.
T’Chaka/Coal Tiger
In 1988, Tom DeFalco wrote a series for Marvel called A-Next, featuring the next generation of the Avengers characters. In this universe, T’Challa is both the Black Panther and an Avenger. He and Storm’s son is T’Chaka. When the superhero Vibraxus gets kidnapped, T’Chaka reveals that he can transform into the human/cat hybrid « Coal Tiger » to help the Avengers bring the Wakandan hero home. (Coincidentally, the name « Coal Tiger » is also an early iteration of T’Challa).
T’Charra
Near the conclusion of Christopher Priest’s definitive Black Panther run in 2001, the writer created the character T’Charra in « The Once and Future King » storyline (Black Panther Vol. 3, #36). The story takes place in a future alternate universe, where an older and more jaded T’Challa has closed Wakanda’s borders again, returning to the country’s traditional isolationist ways.
T’Charra, the King’s only son, does not respect his father and plots his demise in a play for the throne by quietly funding and collaborating with T’Challa’s enemies. In a vicious plot to lure T’Challa back to America to kill him on foreign soil, T’Charra has Killmonger kidnap Everett Ross. And when his adopted sister Faida and T’Challa’s adopted sibling Hunter are lured to the wrong location to rescue the aging agent, T’Charra kills them both and murders Killmonger as well, leaving only Faida’s body on display to be found by T’Challa, who is horrified. T’Challa goes on to save Ross and defeats T’Charra with the help of Luke Cage, Sam Wilson (Falcon), and Jericho Drumm (Doctor Voodoo).
King K’Shamba
Did you know that in 2004, a year after Robert Kirkman started writing The Walking Dead for Image Comics, he wrote a single Black Panther arc? In the obscure run, Marvel Knights: Black Panther 2099, King T’Challa is dead, leaving a power vacuum in Wakanda.
Corrupt leaders have been holding together the country while lining their pockets, but they can’t convince T’Challa’s oldest son K’Shamba to become King. That is, until Victor Von Doom attacks and uses Doombots to take control of the country. T’Challa joins the rebellion and eventually dons his father’s suit, defeating Doom and becoming Wakanda’s protector, the Black Panther. But in the end, it’s just another system of control, as Doom also seems to be manipulating K’Shamba.
T’Channa/Colonel America
Kirkman also teamed up with Mark Millar (Old Man Logan, Kickass) on Marvel Zombies. Almost every central Marvel character is transformed into the undead in this storyline after a zombie virus gets loose. In this universe, Millar created T’Channa, the son of King T’Challa and Lisa Hendriks, the mutant member of the Acolytes.
Years apart, both father and son die due to the zombie plague. But T’Channa’s body reanimates after his brain is swapped with the undead brain of Steve Rogers to create « Colonel America » (Get Out, anyone?).
Another version of this character exists outside of this storyline where T’Channa is actually T’Challa’s sister, who eventually becomes Latveria’s Doctor Doom.
T’wari
In 2008, in Black Panther Annual Vol. 1, Hudlin wrote the standalone story Black to the Future, featuring the wedding of T’Challa and Storm’s eldest son. The couple has five children here; the groom, twin daughters, and a young son are all unnamed. However, their middle child, T’wari, who does not wish to attend his sibling’s wedding, is the story’s focus as Storm discusses Wakanda’s role on the world stage and his responsibilities as her son. In the end, it’s revealed that The Watcher is observing a singular timeline. It’s a clever way to glimpse the future of a Wakanda that might have been.
T’Chaka II and Sh’ri
The following year, writer Jeff Parker revived a short-lived Exiles series featuring a new character: T’Chaka II, grandchild of T’Chaka, son of T’Challa and Storm, and elder brother of Sh’ri.
In this storyline, T’Chaka II and his companion AI lion bot L-10 get caught in a blast created by Ulysses Klaw so huge that it knocks T’Chaka II right out of his reality into that of the Exiles. Here he is rechristened The Panther by the Time Broker, and along with Scarlet Witch, Beast, Forge, Polaris, and Blink, the team hops across universes, fixing « hiccups » across timelines. His disappearance led to Sh’ri becoming a new and powerful Black Panther.
Azari T’Challa
In 2010, one year before Brian Michael Bendis debuted Miles Morales in Spider-Man, he wrote about a universe run by Ultron. In this storyline all of the Avengers, and quite a few X-Men perish, including Storm and T’Challa.
They are survived by their son, Azari T’challa, who becomes the New Black Panther and joins the Next Avengers, a team made up of the descendants of the original Avengers who all died in the war. Azari inherited the powers and abilities of the heart-shaped herb from his father and has enhanced speed, strength, endurance, senses, and healing, along with electrokinesis and force field manipulation from his mom.
Azari T’Challa made his onscreen debut in the direct-to DVD Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow animated movie. The story was adapted from the comics to appeal to fans of Age of Ultron and Young Avengers, but Marvel has never publicly stated that Next Avengers is part of the MCU. The film also does not appear on Disney+ where the rest of the MCU titles reside.
Sky Panther
Sky Panther is an interesting character, who made only a brief appearance in Avengers Academy #12 (2010). Christos Gage briefly introduced her as the daughter of Storm and T’Challa in this time manipulation story where the students of Avengers Academy are aged up to master new abilities. Finesse, a polymath and a « mimic » with the ability to take on any power she sees, uses Sky Panther’s powers of « electrical nerve strikes » to fight the entity Korvac.
Kymera
In the 2013 time-bending 10-issue crossover event « X-Men: Battle of the Atom, » co-writer Jason Aaron introduced Kymera, the daughter of Storm, who is seen briefly as a member of a future team of mutants. Although her father isn’t named, it’s assumed that a future version of T’Challa is her dad, due to her strength and the large literal black panther accompanying her.
A’Di (niece)
I include A’Di on this list simply because her name sounds like « Haiti » (which, if you have seen Wakanda Forever, is important). Created by Margaret Stohl, A’Di is an Alpha flight cadet in Mighty Captain Marvel #5 (2017). Although she is considered T’Challa’s niece, Shuri is not her mother, nor are any other children of T’Challa mentioned.
Coogler has plenty of source material to choose from if we are to get a third Black Panther movie. Blending a combination of Azari T’Challa’s storyline from New Avengers and T’Chaka II’s personality from Exiles makes the most sense in terms of inspiration, especially since the MCU appears to be gearing up for a new generation of superheroes to take the reins.
We’ve already met Kate Bishop (Hawkeye), Cassie Lang (Stature), America Chavez (Ms. America), Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel), Kid Loki, and Riri Williams (Ironheart), who was just introduced in Wakanda Forever. We’ve also met the child of Heimdall (Axl), Wanda’s magical children Tommy and Billy (Wiccan and Speed), and Isaiah Bradley’s grandson Elijah who takes on the alias Patriot, one of the leaders of the Young Avengers in the comics.
And as a new character, Toussaint T’Challa is completely free from the constraints of comic canon, as is his mom Nakia, as her character is deceased in the comics. So the future Black Panther can be whatever Coogler — and Kevin Fiege — want him to be.
