Black Panther ending explained: What happened to Killmonger's attempt for the throne?

Black Panther was the Marvel movie we had all been waiting for. It brought us the story of T’Challa, with the late, great Chadwick Boseman in the lead. Opposite him was Michael B. Jordan as the villain Killmonger.

While Black Panther started off with a story set thousands of years ago to allow us to understand Wakanada and then jumped to 1992 to kick start the backstory for Killmonger, the main focus was on after T’Chaka’s death. T’Challa stepped up to become King of Wakanda, but not everyone was happy.

Why Killmonger wanted to rule Wakanda

Killmonger was known as Erik Stevens at first. His backstory became clear when T’Challa noticed that he wore N’Jobu’s necklace. It turned out that Erik was the American son of N’Jobu. N’Jobu had wanted to share Wakanda’s technology with the world to help those of African descent rise up against their suppressors. T’Chaka didn’t want that, and wanted to have N’Jobu arrested. However, T’Chaka was forced to kill N’Jobu, and Zuri had to lie that N’Jobu ha disappeared and left behind his son.

It makes sense that N’Jobu would want this for the people. He left Wakanda and saw what the world was like outside. He didn’t want to see people like him suffer if they didn’t have to.

Erik went off to join the Nacy SEALs, where he gained the nickname Killmonger. Killmonger believes that he has a claim to the Wakandan throne, and so, he challenges T’Challa to that. He wants to continue his father’s path of distributing the technology to operatives around the world.

However, it looks like he wants to do it for all and not just those of African descent. His focus was for the brothers he grew up with in the Navy SEALs, which puts a less heroic touch on his father’s original plan.

What happens to Killmonger in Black Panther?

It looks like Killmonger may succeed. He challenges T’Challa to ritual combat, where T’Challa is injured and thrown over a waterfall. Zuri is killed, so there is nobody to share what really happened. After this, Killmonger ingests the heart-shaped herb and orders for all the rest to be burned. Nakia is able to extract one of them. This is important for later.

While Nakia, Shuri, and others are fleeing to the Jabari Tribe for help, they come across a comatose T’Challa. He was rescued by the Jabari as repayment for sparing M’Baku’s life earlier on in the movie. This is where the herb comes in. Nakia is able to give that to T’Challa, waking T’Challa up so he can fight Killmonger again.

This fight is much more technologically advanced. Killmonger has a nanotech suit that is similar to the one T’Challa wears. As the fight goes on, Shuri and others shoot down all the planes that Killmonger had set up to take technology out of Wakanda. The army fighting for Killmonger is forced to step down as T’Challa disrupts Killmonger’s suit and stabs him.

Killmonger makes the choice to die. He doesn’t want to be incarcerated, and decides that dying as a free man is better. He’s able to die peacefully with T’Challa showing him the Wakanda sunset, making for a beautiful but bittersweet moment.

T’Challa does share Wakanda with the world at the end of Black Panther

T’Challa doesn’t want the deaths of N’Jobu and Killmonger to go forgotten about. He starts by building an outreach center in the building N’Jobu died. Nakia and Shuri run the building, continuing to advance technology and protect Wakanda.

During the mid-credits scene, we see T’Challa realize that N’Jobu may have had the right idea but the wrong execution. T’Challa goes before the United Nations to share the true nature of Wakanda to the whole world.

We then get a connection to the main Avengers movies in the post-credits scene. Shuri helps Bucky Barnes with rehabilitation, something that had been set up during Captain America: Civil War. Bucky had been framed for the murder of T’Chaka, and naturally, T’Challa wanted revenge. Once he realized and accepted that Bucky was innocent and brainwashed, he allowed Bucky to come to Wakanda for help. We’d last seen him go into cryogenic sleep until a cure was found, so the post-credits scene suggests that T’Challa found it and kept his promise to help.