• Toys from LEGO may have revealed the identity of the new Black Panther and the film’s main conflict.
• Some of these toys have been revealed already while another was released early in stores.
• LEGO toys don’t have the best accuracy for film plot authenticity.

This past weekend toys from LEGO – both revealed to the public and one unintended early release – may have spilled some key information about Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Before we get into it you should click away now if you want to go into the movie, releasing 11th November, without any spoilers. Even if these toys prove to be inaccurate they may colour your impression of the film before you see it, or set up the wrong expectations.

So the first big point that LEGO may have revealed is the question of why will become the new Black Panther. After the shocking death of Chadwick Boseman the public has been wondering who, in the universe of the MCU, will take up the mantle as the Black Panther is a title, not one person.

LEGO sets 76211: Shuri’s Sunbird (pictured above) and 76213: King Namor’s Throne Room (pictured below) seem to reveal that Shuri will become the new Black Panther. In both sets we see the character wearing the black Vibranium costume, albeit without the famous mask with feline features.

While LEGO does call this minifigure Shuri – and not Black Panther – it seems pretty cut and dry that she takes up this role.

What’s less dry is a new set that has not been revealed by LEGO, which is set in the ocean. The Sunbird and throne room sets were both officially revealed and will go on sale soon as we covered here. A new and previously unseen set, however, mysteriously arrived on store shelves over the last few days.

German LEGO site Promobricks has revealed set 6214: War on the Water: Black Panther that was found already for sale by Instagram user underscorezeus. 

We won’t share those images here so please click on those links for more.

The set shows what seems to be a Wakandan sea vessel under attack from Namor with Shuri as Black Panther and Riri Williams – AKA Ironheart in what is supposed to be her Mark II armour – fighting him. There is a jail cell inside of the vessel to place Namor should he be defeated.

Interestingly Shuri is not called “Black Panther”, but Riri is called “Ironheart” on the packaging.

This seems to indicate that the conflict of Wakanda Forever will be a clash between Wakanda and Namor’s kingdom of Atlantis. There has been speculation for the longest time that will be the case, but this toy seems to be a proper indication of fighting between the two nations.

If this will be the main plot of the story, or a side plot, remains to be seen. While arrogant and disliked by many in the comics, Namor is a hero and not a villian (most of the time) so we may see him as the antagonist for some of the film before he joins with the new Black Planther and Ironheart to fight a bigger threat.

Take all of this with a grain of salt

If you’ve seen Iron Man 3 you may be very confused by the real LEGO set above, 76008: Iron Man vs. The Mandarin: Ultimate Showdown.

At no point in that movie does Iron Man fight “The Mandarin” in what can only be described as a Zamboni with a flamethrower haphazardly strapped to it.

This is because all toy companies are shown early concepts and stories for movies to give them a long lead time to create toys, a complicated process that takes ages to move from idea to final product.

While these companies are in the process of making said toys the movie they are based on may change dramatically leading to these products which are inaccurate at best and completely alien to the movie at worst.

The Ultimate Showdown set is infamous in the toy world because of this and it acts a reminder that, just because an official set based on a movie depicts something, there is no guarantee that it will actually appear in that movie.

It’s with this in mind that we discussed the above “reveals” as they may not be accurate at all.

Finally some elements of toys may exist as play features for kids and nothing else. LEGO has, for decades, built in jails or other containment areas for bad guys in sets.

This is purely for those playing with these toys to have some fun and, again, don’t correlate with any source material. This is the same for other play features like shooting projectiles, though it would be funny to see the all mighty and untouchable Namor in a tiny LEGO jail.