Who Okoye is
Okoye is the best fighter in Wakanda and she knows it. As head of the Dora Milaje, she guards the king, leads the army and has no patience for anyone who wastes her time. She is deeply traditional: she wears her ceremonial armor with pride, fights with a vibranium spear and sees guns as primitive.
What makes her interesting is how firm that loyalty is. Okoye serves Wakanda's throne and its laws, even when the person on the throne is someone she hates. That principle sits at the center of both films and leads to some of their hardest choices.
Okoye's appearances in order
- Black Panther (2018, film, essential)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018, film, essential)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019, film, essential)
- What If...? (2021, series, optional): an alternate-universe animated appearance
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022, film, recommended)
Black Panther is where she makes her name. Wakanda Forever gives her one of the film's most important emotional arcs.
Her defining moments
Black Panther hands her the film's funniest and fiercest scenes. On a mission to a casino in Busan, she has to wear a wig to blend in and makes no secret of how much she hates it, right up until the fight starts. On the road chase that follows, she rides on top of a speeding car with her spear.
The harder moment comes when the crown changes hands. Okoye has to decide whether duty means obeying a king who is tearing Wakanda apart, and her answer splits her from someone very close to her: W'Kabi, her husband, chooses the other side. Their face-off on the battlefield is short but unforgettable.
In Wakanda Forever, her loyalty is tested again, and this time it costs her dearly. We will not say more, except that the film gives her a new path and shows a more vulnerable Okoye than we have seen before.
Wakanda's inner circle
Okoye and Nakia work as a pair of opposites. Nakia questions tradition and wants Wakanda to open up, while Okoye defends the old ways; they still trust each other with their lives. She serves Queen Ramonda with deep respect and is protective of Shuri, whose jokes she tolerates. M'Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe, starts as a rival to the throne and becomes an unlikely ally. Erik Killmonger is the challenge to everything she believes, and in the sequel, Namor brings a threat from beneath the ocean.
Danai Gurira as Okoye
Gurira plays Okoye with total control, using very few words and a lot of meaning in a look. Her spear work sells the idea that Okoye could take on anyone. She can also be very funny in a deadpan way. Outside the MCU, she is best known as Michonne, the katana-wielding survivor in The Walking Dead. She is also an acclaimed playwright, whose play Eclipsed reached Broadway.
The best order to watch
Start with Black Panther. Captain America: Civil War introduces T'Challa and is worth watching first, but Okoye's story starts properly in the solo film. Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame fall in the gap between the two Black Panther films, and Wakanda Forever deals with the world they leave behind. Then watch Wakanda Forever for the rest of her arc. Our MCU chronological order shows where both films sit in the timeline.