Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Sets Up A Classic X-Men Location

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Information revealed during Black Panther: Wakanda Forever could expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe even further by setting up one unusual X-Men location from Marvel Comics. The underwater kingdom of Talocan was explored during Wakanda Forever, led by the ageless mutant K’uk’ulkan, a.k.a. Namor, who revealed that their city was built on the site of a vibranium meteor strike, just as the nation of Wakanda was. Vibranium is a major commodity in the MCU, and while Captain America’s shield was once thought to be the last remnants of the metal on Earth, it now seems that there’s far more than anyone realized, creating the opportunity for another location to be uncovered.

If two vibranium meteors struck the MCU Earth, it stands to reason that a third could have as well. However, this would have to have happened in an inhospitable place, since it’s likely that other vibranium deposits would’ve been uncovered by now. Logically, this would allow for a vibranium meteor to have struck somewhere like Antarctica, opening the door for the MCU’s Savage Land to be introduced. The Savage Land is an incredibly strange comic location that regularly hosts characters, including various X-Men. Setting up the Savage Land as a location in the MCU could be setting the stage for the MCU’s version of the X-Men team’s perfect debut.

Marvel Comics’ Savage Land Explained

Created by Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, and Syd Shores, the Savage Land first appeared in Marvel Comics as The Land Where Time Stands Still during 1941’s Marvel Mystery Comics #22, but gained its familiar form in 1965’s X-Men #10. The Savage Land is a tropical, prehistoric preserve in Antarctica, surrounded by volcanoes and protected for millennia by an Ancient alien race, the Nuwali. The Nuwali installed advanced technology to maintain the tropical climate, and stocked the Savage Land with species from across the globe, including dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, and “man-apes”, early hominids. Over time, the Nuwali stopped maintaining the Savage Land, leaving the creatures to thrive without the aliens’ interference.

After the Nuwali’s departure, a group of Atlanteans found the Savage Land and began to experiment with genetic engineering, creating new kinds of creatures that separated into distinct tribes. In more recent years, the valuable Marvel resource vibranium was discovered in the Savage Land by Lord Robert Plunder, who named the metal “anti-metal,” as it had the ability to liquefy other metals when it vibrated. Plunder was killed on a second trip to the Savage Land, leaving his son Kevin to be raised by a sabertooth tiger. Kevin would become the superhero Ka-Zar, who had many dealings with the X-Men, the team who would make the Savage Land public knowledge.

Vibranium Could Be The Key To Discovering The Savage Land

If there are huge stocks of vibranium in the MCU’s Savage Land, it could be quite easy to find. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever debuted Riri Williams, a genius MIT student who developed a vibranium detector machine which would inadvertently discover Talocan under the ocean. Riri’s machine was able to detect vibranium as the metal releases very specific wavelengths of radiation, and since it’s known that the US government are desperate to get their hands on vibranium – particularly the MCU’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine – it’s possible that Riri’s tech could be fitted to satellites, scanning the Earth for potential vibranium deposits, and perhaps uncovering the Savage Land.

In Marvel Comics, vibranium does exist in the Savage Land, as discovered by Lord Robert Plunder, so it can be assumed that it exists in the MCU’s version of the territory, if it’s ever to be introduced. Vibranium in the Savage Land would also probably be easier for various governments to harvest, since they’d only have dinosaurs to worry about, and not Wakandans or the Talokanil. The introduction of the Savage Land and vast deposits of accessible vibranium would crack open the MCU in some truly exciting ways.

What Would The Savage Land Add To The MCU?

Perhaps the most significant addition that the Savage Land could bring would be the MCU’s team of X-Men. The team spent a lot of time in the Savage Land, with the territory even at one point acting as a base for Magneto. Usually, the Savage Land was used as a location for characters to battle without the fear of causing damage to cities or risking innocent lives, but there is one key storyline coming up in the MCU which the Savage Land was very important for: Secret Invasion. Skrulls were discovered mining for vibranium in the Savage Land, with a major fight between the heroes and Skrulls imitating them ensuing.

There’s been no confirmation of the Savage Land appearing in the upcoming Secret Invasion series on Disney+, but if the MCU’s Skrulls were to get their hands on vibranium, it could lead to some incredible battles. The Savage Land has, in fact, already been teased during the multiverse jumping scene in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, suggesting that the location is actually in another reality, but there’s nothing to say that it couldn’t also exist on Earth-616. Given Black Panther: Wakanda Forever furthers this idea, introducing the Savage Land to the MCU would only help believably expand its world – especially after the X-Men are introduced.