With the shadow of the late Chadwick Boseman looming large, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tackles themes of grief and legacy without sacrificing superhero spectacular, yet the lack of a strong central character does rob the film of much needed charisma.

It was a courageous decision: instead of recasting the role of King T’Challa aka Black Panther – previously played by the late, great Chadwick Boseman – Marvel Studios and director Ryan Coogler opted to acknowledge the actor’s death by killing off his most famous character.

The ripple effect of such a move is felt throughout Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Perhaps the most sombre film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (outside of the abysmal Eternals), this 161 minute follow up to the 2018 box-office smash Black Panther begins with a funeral in the fictional African nation of Wakanda. With their king and protector dead, Wakanda is vulnerable to attacks from the outside world for their prized resource, vibranium, an indestructible metal.

It turns out that vibranium is also native to the underwater kingdom of Talokan, whose king and protector Namor (Tenoch Huerta) has declared war upon Wakanda. It is now up to Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), deep in grief and reluctant to embrace tradition, to lead her nation against a new threat.

Coogler continues to expand the world building in his corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to immersive, impressive heights, avoiding the pitfalls of recent films in the MCU that sacrificed storytelling for franchise synergy. Not only has Wakanda expanded in scope and depth in its geographical and cultural flourishes, but so too has Coogler delivered upon a new exotic world in Talokan, the underwater kingdom home to a blue-skinned race of human sub-species led by the righteous mutant hybrid Namor.

While Tenoch Huerta does not have the same primal magnetism of his DC equivalent Jason Mamoa, the Mexican actor has a strong presence that is felt whenever on screen. Not a villain in the traditional sense, the Namor of the MCU is very much an antagonist of black-and-white worldview whose self-proclaimed noble quest to defend his people comes with a body count.

With Chadwick Boseman gone, however, missing is a strong presence in the hero part of the equation. The decision to have Zuri, the brain tech head younger sister of T’Challa to become the next Black Panther, makes narrative sense. Yet Letitia Wright does not command the screen as a heroic presence, or as a leading woman. Wright is often outshined by the more capable Lupita N’yongo as the Wakanda super-agent Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Danai Gurira as the head of Wakanda security Okoye. Whatever the reason, Wright just does not convince in her promotion to the key figurehead of a superhero franchise.

Coogler, though, manages to make it all work, with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever a triumph in world building, and an exercise in superhero mourning done right.