Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Disney
Topics: Film and TV, Marvel, Black Panther
Joe Harker
Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya will sadly not be returning for the Black Panther sequel.
Fans hoping that Kaluuya would be back to reprise his role as W'Kabi are set to be disappointed as the star confirmed in an interview he wasn't able to return.
He starred in the 2018 movie as the leader of the Border Tribe in Wakanda, husband of Okoye (Danai Gurira) and best friend of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who eventually betrays his king.
Siding with villain Killmonger (Michael B Jordan) in the climax of the movie, he is ultimately defeated when he lays down his arms (and war rhino) after refusing to fight his wife to the death.
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Kaluuya didn't appear in any of the Wakanda scenes in subsequent Marvel movies, leading to speculation that his character had been imprisoned or exiled.
However, it had been thought that he'd make a return in the sequel to the 2018 film, titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Unfortunately, it's been confirmed in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes editor Jacqueline Coley that due to 'scheduling conflicts' he's been forced to turn down the opportunity to return.
While it's sad that Kaluuya couldn't make it back into the MCU, he was busy working on Jordan Peele's latest horror movie Nope, which could make up for his absence from the Black Panther sequel
Kaluuya and Peele combined to great effect in 2017's chilling horror film Get Out, where the actor played a young man visiting his girlfriend's parents for the first time only to discover their sickening plans for him.
Get Out notched Kaluuya his first Oscar nomination, though he lost out to Gary Oldman's portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
He would go on to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Judas and the Black Messiah.
Get Out earned Peele an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, and he won the famous golden statue for Best Original Screenplay.
As for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the movie is due for release later this year, with Ryan Coogler back in the director's chair.
The film will return to the fictional futuristic nation built on top of the incredibly valuable metal vibranium, and deals with the loss of T'Challa in the aftermath of actor Chadwick Boseman's death.
Boseman died of cancer in 2020 and Marvel have confirmed they won't be recasting the character out of respect for the actor.
There will also be no use of a digital double to reuse the actor's likeness in the film, meaning T'Challa is almost certainly gone for good.
The actor's final work in the role involved lending his voice to the character for the animated series What If...?
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will arrive in cinemas on 11 November.