Wakanda Forever
screenshot of trailer

'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' trailer & EP ft. Tems & Amaarae out now

Marvel’s 2018 film Black Panther is getting a sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which hits theaters on November 11. The trailer premiered at Comic Con in San Diego this past weekend as part of a bigger Marvel presentation; director Ryan Coogler was there to help preview the film, and he also paid tribute to Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020. The trailer is soundtracked by an ethereal cover of Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” by Nigerian singer Tems and a sample of Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” and it includes scenes from a funeral for Chadwick Boseman’s character T’Challa. Watch below.

Also out now is the there-song Wakanda Forever Prologue EP, which features Tems’ Bob Marley cover, an upbeat new song from Ghanaian artist Amaarae called “A Body, A Coffin,” and Mexican rapper Santa Fe Klan‘s new song “Soy.” The EP was produced by the film’s composer, Ludwig Göransson, who also scored Black Panther and worked on that film’s accompanying album with Kendrick Lamar. Göransson and Coogler said in a statement:

This Prologue is an aural first glimpse of Wakanda Forever. The sound world for the film began with extended trips to Mexico and Nigeria. We spent our days working with traditional musicians who educated us about the cultural, social and historical contexts of their music. We built a catalogue of instrumental and vocal recordings with them that explored both traditional and non-traditional uses of their musical material. During the nights on these trips, we had recording sessions with contemporary artists who were akin to the characters and thematic material explored in the film. Using the script as a blueprint, along with the recordings from the traditional musicians, we began to build a musical vocabulary for the characters, storylines and cultures. The instrumental score and soundtrack for Wakanda Forever both organically grew from these sessions and workshops. They are conceived together as a singular entity to create an immersive and enveloping sound world for the film.

Listen to all three tracks below.

Tems is also a confirmed contributor on the new Beyoncé album that comes out this week, and she appears alongside Drake on “Wait For U” off the new Future album. Last year, she released the widely acclaimed EP If Orange Was A Place. Amaarae released her great debut album The Angel You Don’t Know in 2020, and she kept the momentum going last fall with a new remix of “Sad Girlz Luv Money” featuring Kali Uchis.