a lot of mystery surrounding Michaela Coel’s casting. She’s only billed as “Aneka, a Wakandan warrior.” On the face of it, this isn’t abnormal — lots of characters get added to casts with brief descriptions. But Coel is simply too big to be added to an already star-studded film as a distant, insignificant character. Since her breakthrough with Chewing Gum and the universal acclaim for her Emmy award–winning HBO show I May Destroy You — which she wrote, directed, and starred in — Coel has proven she has the acting charisma to carry the mantle. The vague description of Aneka only serves to raise more questions. What’s Coel doing in this movie?
I’ll tell you what she’s doing: She’s being THE NEXT BLACK PANTHER.
Third, Coel is on the cover of November’s issue of Vogue! A month before the release of Wakanda Forever, Coel is the only star of the movie on the cover of a major magazine. In the accompanying Vogue profile, Coel
reveals new detailsabout her character, a queer woman and a combat instructor. Coel is a curious choice for a cover star — this is a cast that boasts Oscar-caliber household names like Bassett and Lupita Nyong’o! It’s extremely interesting that it has fallen to Coel to carry the promotional weight of the film.
