Ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's upcoming digital release, a new deleted scene shows Okoye being tempted to claim the Wakandan throne for herself.
The brief deleted scene, called "Daughter of the Border," focuses on the disgraced Dora Milaje leader Okoye (Danai Gurira) as she returns home to meet with her uncle, the Border Tribe elder (played by Danny Sapani). The often blue-clad Border Tribe has a much smaller role in Wakanda Forever than they did in the first film, where Okoye's husband W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) and his Border Tribe soldiers sided with Killmonger. Okoye's uncle appears to have some schemes of his own, as he asks Okoye to potentially betray her friend Shuri and challenge her for the role of Queen.
Queen Okoye?
Based on the dialogue, the scene takes place just after Namor and his aquatic forces stormed the Wakandan capital and killed Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett). Without a leader, the elder says the other tribes are currently fighting over "who will get the honor of being assassinated by Namor next." He proposes that they must perform the traditional challenge at Warrior Falls, and he wants his niece Okoye to step forward on behalf of the Border Tribe. If she wins, this would make her Queen of Wakanda. Okoye laughs at first, but her uncle insists that she has popular support among the people, and that "Wakanda would be proud to stand behind you." When Okoye protests and asks where this would leave Shuri, her uncle dismisses Shuri as a "grieving woman."
Of course, this storyline ended up being cut entirely from the movie. Amid the chaos of Wakanda's war against the undersea Talokan, Shuri eventually becomes Black Panther without performing the Warrior Falls ceremony and leaves Wakanda without challenging for the throne at the end. Okoye never shows any signs of wanting the throne for herself, and the only time she challenges Shuri after this deleted scene takes place is to say how much she hates the Midnight Angel armor. The Border Tribe stays in the background, with only a passing mention of W'Kabi.
Okoye frequently appears in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. She appears in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and becomes Wakanda's representative at Avengers meetings after T'Challa disappears from Thanos' snap. Marvel Studios announced a while ago that it is developing a Wakanda-focused Disney+ series, and Gurira reportedly signed a deal to star as Okoye. There's currently no release date scheduled for that series. However, Wakanda Forever's Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) is set to star in an Ironheart Disney+ series, which is set to premiere in late 2023.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives on Disney+ on Feb. 1 and gets its physical release on Feb. 7.
Source: IGN via YouTube