Daniel Kaluuya will not be returning for Black Panther 2

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The actor won't be reprising his role as W'Kabi in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Daniel Kaluuya as W'Kabi in Black Panther
(Image credit: Disney/Marvel)

Daniel Kaluuya won't be returning to the MCU for Black Panther 2. In the first film, the actor played W'Kabi, who is married to Danai Gurira's Okoye and is close with T'Challa's (Chadwick Boseman), though he sides with Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger against his friend. 

Rotten Tomatoes' Jacqueline Coley broke the news on Twitter, revealing that Kaluuya has not returned for the Marvel sequel due to scheduling conflicts with Jordan Peele's upcoming film Nope. Kaluuya will star in the sci-fi horror film alongside Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun. 

In the Black Panther sequel, Gurira is returning as Okoye, and Letitia Wright's Shuri, Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia, Winston Duke's M'Baku, Angela Bassett's Ramonda, and Martin Freeman's Everett Ross are also back. Newcomers include Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams, AKA Ironheart, and Tenoch Huerta in a mystery role – speculation has focused on Atlantean prince Namor, but Huerta has poked fun at people who think pictures of him as the character have leaked. 

The plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is pretty much entirely a mystery, but Freeman has teased that we should expect the unexpected. "Some of it was really – some of it's very odd, and I think [director Ryan Coogler] could see by the reaction on my face some of the things he was saying… He kept sort of stopping, and going... He kept on saying, 'Stay with me, but this is going to work.'"

Molly Edwards
Molly Edwards
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I'm the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.