Where is Nakia in Black Panther 2? Warning spoilers ahead! Nakia, who is played by Black Panther cast member Lupita Nyong’o, was introduced in the first Black Panther movie as a member of Wakanda‘s central intelligence service, the War Dogs. As a member of the War Dogs, the Black Panther character would go on undercover missions to countries like South Korea and Nigeria to collect information about them in order to ensure Wakanda’s safety.
Her time undercover in the War Dogs led to her having confrontations with ivory smugglers and human traffickers amongst others, but by the end of the superhero movie, they had reconciled their romantic relationship. At the end of Avengers: Infinity War, T’Challa was one of several MCU characters who perished as a result of Thanos’ Snap, only to return five years later in Avengers: Endgame.
In Black Panther 2, it is revealed that Nakia was not one of the people Blipped by Thanos, meaning she remained on Earth 616 during the five-year period half the universe was Snapped away. This leads us to the question: where is Nakia in Black Panther 2? Well, sit back, and we’ll explain just that.
Where is Nakia in Black Panther 2?
Nakia seems unusually absent at the start of Black Panther 2. Although Griot, Shuri‘s AI, tells the Princess that Nakia is trying to call her, Shuri seems unwilling to speak to her, appearing to resent her for not being in Wakanda.
After Namor the Sub-Mariner takes Shuri and Ironheart hostage, with Ironheart’s Vibranium-detector machine putting Talocan on the US Government’s radar, Queen Ramonda travels to Haiti, where it is revealed Nakia lives. Nakia is working as the headmistress of a school in Haiti, but Queen Ramonda encourages her to go undercover and resume War Dog duties once again in order to rescue Shuri and Ironheart from Namor.
Once Ironheart and Shuri are rescued, Namor responds by attacking Wakanda with floods and Talocan forces, which causes several casualties and severely damages Wakanda’s infrastructure. He vows to return in a week to take Ironheart by force, and Nakia sticks around to help Shuri prepare for battle: performing the ritual with the synthetic Heart-Shaped Herb to help Shuri become the new Black Panther. Nakia also fights alongside Okoye and others against Talocan forces. She later invites Shuri to visit her in Haiti.
In the Black Panther 2 post-credit scene, Shuri joins her in Haiti as they both reflect on the loss of T’Challa. Nakia reveals that she bore a son with T’Challa, but that during his illness, he asked her to stay away and raise the child away from Wakanda: also requesting that she don’t attend his funeral. So, the reason Nakia stayed away from Wakanda was that it was T’Challa’s dying wish to keep her and her son, also called T’Challa, safe.
Black Panther 2 will be available to watch in theatres from November 11. If you want to know more about the future of the MCU, we’ve scoured the web trying to learn everything we could about Black Panther 3.