In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the central plot revolves around the passing of King T'Challa. The opening scenes were a celebration of his life and legacy in the MCU. This is reflective of the real-world passing of actor Chadwick Boseman who played the superhero, Black Panther.
There's a sense of grief and loss when watching the trailer for Black Panther 2, which is intentional. Director Ryan Coogler reportedly used his own feelings of loss as the theme for the film. The rest of the cast and crew have also stated that the film is a tribute to Boseman. But, while grief is a central theme to the Black Panther sequel, the original screenplay also used grief albeit in a very different way.
According to Coogler, the follow-up originally planned on using T'Challa grief over losing half a decade to the Blip.
In an interview with Inverse, the director revealed that the tone of the current movie and the original were similar. "The tonal shift, I will say, was less of a shift than in [casting]," Coogler shares.