Vibranium is a metal that never stays with one owner for long. It has been a prototype, a stolen cache and a reason for a war. The question matters again because “Avengers: Doomsday” arrives on December 18th. Disney’s cast list for it includes Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Tenoch Huerta Mejía, who played Shuri, M’Baku and Namor in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
Here is the metal’s whole life on screen, in story order. Each stop changes who holds it and what the next film can do with it. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for “Captain America: The First Avenger”, “Black Panther”, “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, “Captain America: Civil War” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
It has been a prototype, a stolen cache and a reason for a war.”
The metal starts as a rock from space. “Black Panther” opens with a story about a meteorite “made of vibranium” that struck Africa “millions of years ago.” The narration calls it “the strongest substance in the universe” and says it was “affecting the plant life around it.” Five tribes settled there and called the land Wakanda, and the story says they used the metal to build technology “more advanced than any other nation.” Then they chose secrecy, vowing to “hide in plain sight” so the world would never see their power. Most of what follows is that secret slipping away.
The sea has its own version. In “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, Namor tells Shuri that Spanish conquistadors drove his mother’s village from its farms. A shaman followed a vision to “a plant sprouting from a blue rock.” The plant let the villagers who ate it breathe underwater, so they settled in the ocean and founded Talokan. That plant grew in vibranium-rich soil. Namor’s mother was pregnant when she ate it, and he was born with wings on his ankles. Later the same plant lets Shuri build a new Heart-Shaped Herb.
The word reaches the screen in the 1940s. In “Captain America: The First Avenger”, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) picks out a prototype shield from the options Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) shows him. Asked what it is made of, Howard answers “Vibranium.” He calls it “the rarest metal on Earth” and says “that’s all we’ve got.” The film never says where he got it, and nothing in the scene ties the metal to Wakanda. That gap is the first loose thread in the story.
The theft that matters happens in 1992. “Black Panther” jumps to Oakland that year. N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown), King T’Chaka’s brother, is a Wakandan spy there. He wants to arm oppressed people with vibranium weapons, so he teams up with the arms dealer Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) to steal a cache. The scene says Klaue took “a quarter ton of vibranium” and “triggered a bomb at the border to escape.” T’Chaka confronts his brother and kills him, and N’Jobu’s young son is left behind. That boy grows up to be Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan).
Klaue sells his stolen vibranium to the wrong buyer in “Avengers: Age of Ultron”. Ultron (James Spader) wants a body that is close to indestructible, and he wants it built from vibranium. Klaue hands the metal over for billions. Then he compares Ultron to Tony Stark, and Ultron cuts off Klaue’s arm. Ultron has Helen Cho build the body in her Regeneration Cradle out of synthetic tissue bonded with vibranium. He never gets to wear it, and the body becomes Vision. Ultron also lifts part of Sokovia into the sky, and the film says a vibranium core’s magnetic field is “keeping the rock together.”
The fallout reaches the United Nations in “Captain America: Civil War”. King T’Chaka tells the delegates that “stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon” and that “we in Wakanda were forced to question our legacy.” Kevin Feige told Birth.Movies.Death, as Bustle reports, that T’Challa and his father are saying “A bunch of vibranium just got out of here and wreaked a lot of havoc.” T’Chaka is killed soon after, and his son T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) takes the crown. T’Challa wears a suit made from the same metal, and Wakanda later gives Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) a vibranium arm.
“Black Panther” brings the theft home. Killmonger and Klaue steal a Wakandan vibranium artifact. Then Killmonger kills Klaue and uses the body to get into Wakanda. He wins the throne and reaches out to the War Dogs, the Wakandan spies scattered around the world, with a plan to send them vibranium weapons. T’Challa beats him and ends the plan. The mid-credits scene then flips the old secret, with T’Challa telling the United Nations that Wakanda will share its knowledge and resources with the outside world for the first time. The name has even become a punchline, as when Ikaris smashes a dining table in “Eternals” right after asking “What’s this made of? Vibranium?”
The monopoly cracks in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”. A year after T’Challa’s death, the United Nations presses Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) to share the metal. She answers “It has always been our policy to never trade vibranium under any circumstance.” While she speaks, French soldiers raid a Wakandan outreach center for the vibranium inside, and the Dora Milaje overpower them. The warriors drag the bound soldiers into the hall, and Ramonda warns that any further attempt will be “an act of aggression.”
The second blow lands at sea. A U.S. team drilling in the ocean finds vibranium on the seabed, using a detector built by Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), an MIT student. Namor’s people attack the crew. Namor then appears to Ramonda and Shuri and says “The American military detected vibranium under my nation’s domain.” He wants the machine’s builder handed over for execution. Talokan, it turns out, sits on a deposit of its own.
The war that follows costs Ramonda her life. Shuri makes a new Heart-Shaped Herb from the Talokan plant and becomes the Black Panther. Then she spares Namor, and the two nations make a truce. Producer Nate Moore told Den of Geek that the film leaves Wakanda in a new spot: “by opening up its borders a bit and by trading vibranium a bit, all of a sudden Wakanda finds itself in a different position on the world stage.” The metal is no longer one country’s secret. It is a prize.
That brings the story to “Avengers: Doomsday”. Disney’s cast list includes Wright, Duke and Huerta Mejía and also names Mabel Cadena, who played Namora. Disney’s photo captions name Shuri, M’Baku and the Dora Milaje, but Danai Gurira, who played Okoye, is not on the list. Disney’s D23 site says the Wakandans and the Talokan share the screen with the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Thunderbolts and the X-Men for the first time. In the January 13th teaser Shuri says “I’ve lost everyone that matters to me”, and M’Baku is introduced as Wakanda’s king. Huerta has said his part is smaller this time. Anthony Russo, quoted by D23, said “We have absolutely not announced the entire cast.”
Put the stops side by side and the pattern is plain. The people who hold vibranium keep trying to hide it, and it keeps getting out. Howard’s supply was never explained, and N’Jobu broke his king’s trust to move it. Wakanda hid for generations and still ended up in front of the UN. Now “Doomsday” has two kingdoms with a deposit each and a truce between them. In the comics, Doctor Doom goes after Wakanda’s vibranium. Disney’s synopsis does not mention the metal. If the film borrows that idea, every hand the metal has passed through comes back into play.
What Do You Think? Should Wakanda have shared vibranium sooner, or was hiding it the right call? Did Shuri do right by sparing Namor? And should “Avengers: Doomsday” put the metal at the center of the fight, or leave it in the background?
Catch up properly: every MCU movie and show in chronological order on the MCU+ Universe Tree.
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