Black Panther Fans Are Fighting Back Tears Over The Emotional Mid-Credit Scene In Wakanda Forever
Contains spoilers for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
At this point, releasing an MCU film without including either a mid-credit or end-credit scene would be Marvel Cinematic blasphemy. Fans love them, and the internet is full of listicles trying to rank them from worst to best. But what makes for a good post-movie credits scene? Sometimes, it's as simple as a bunch of superheroes sitting together eating shawarma after saving New York from total destruction. Other scenes are memorable and impactful because they foreshadow great things to come — like Nick Fury at the end of "Iron Man," Thanos' big reveal (also at the end of "The Avengers"), or Nick Fury's pager signaling the arrival of Captain Marvel at the end of "Avengers: Infinity War."
So how does the mid-credit scene from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" stack up against the movies that came before it? Well, if the social media response is any indication, this scene hit a home run right out of the park. Not only did it answer a nagging question which fans have been wondering about for years, but it did so in an emotionally satisfying way that has now emptied the tear ducts of millions of moviegoers nationwide.
Fans have flooded Twitter with GIFs of celebs and animals in tears
One of the newest tweets to go viral out of nowhere comes from @slaughterdxn. It reads, "Me the whole time during the post-credits of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever #WakandaForever," and it features an adorable black and white cat with watery eyes seemingly trying to cover its face with a splayed paw. The tweet perfectly captures the emotional impact the film has had on moviegoers. There seemed to be an even mix of people in the replies expressing similar sentiments with GIFs of animals or famous people crying, messages of solidarity, or both. @Rando_Royale admitted, "I thought I was done crying, then the post-credit scene punched me in the heart," while @tattoodsuperman chose to go with a simple, "For real," and an attached GIF of Tyrese with tears rolling down his cheeks.
Talk of the scene began spreading across Reddit, too. In this spoiler-friendly discussion thread, /u/CringeNaeNaeBaby2 thought that the "final scene followed by the credits were [sic] so good. It really tied the whole thing together. That's such a wild thing to say but holy f*** it got me choked up." Similarly, /u/Ok-Flamingo-1499 felt that "the most emotional scene to me was shuri in Haiti. My theater was dead silent like it stole every breath (queue [sic] Rihanna 'lift me up') beautiful."
It's certainly one thing to create an emotionally impactful scene in a popular film like this one, but when you add in the group experience of seeing in a theater, the emotions of everyone in the room only compound the effect for the audience.
Black Panther's mid-credits scene divulges a years-long MCU secret
We already warned you at the top of the page but if you're averse to major spoilers, you'd best click away now. This mid-credits scene reveals a big secret that Marvel has been sitting on since "Avengers: Endgame" came out in 2019. And that secret is? King T'Challa has a son! The young boy is seen with his mother, Nakia, who we now know is alive and well post-blip. She explains to Shuri that they settled in Haiti to raise the future king of Wakanda away from the stress of the crown. And if the young man grows up to be as grounded as his father, it will have been a smart move.
As much of a surprise as the revelation was to most audience members, at least one attentive Marvel fan saw this big reveal coming a mile away. One of the replies to that big Twitter thread we mentioned earlier included a tweet from @jmetcalf123, who added a screen cap of one of his previous tweets where he predicted that the sequel would more than likely introduce T'Challa's son at some point, aptly pointing out that before the film's release, MCU fans still had no idea whether Nakia survived the snap. They may not have predicted that it would end up in the mid-credits or how emotionally impactful it would be, but they at least deserve a little credit for calling it ahead of time.