Lupita Nyong'o Opens Up About Making Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Without Chadwick Boseman
At San Diego Comic-Con 2022 Marvel fans were teased with a slew of upcoming installments, varying from Daredevil being born again to Kevin Feige revealing that the future of the MCU is resting on Jonathan Majors' shoulders (no pressure). What the crowd wasn't quite prepared for was director Ryan Coogler taking to the stage to debut the incredible first trailer for "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," the hotly anticipated sequel to "Black Panther."
The upcoming installment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe will mark our return to the world of Wakanda, following our initial in-depth 2018 tour. The revisit will, of course, be a bittersweet one, as the kingdom will be without its former king, Chadwick Boseman, the late Oscar-nominated star and former "Black Panther" who sadly died in 2020. Following his passing, it was made clear that T'Challa's role would not be recast, and that the brave king, like the man who played him, would pass on as part of the sequel's story.
As a result, drastic changes were made, transforming the film into what looks to be not just an exciting chapter of the MCU but a fitting tribute to a talent gone too soon. Following the trailer's release, Lupita Nyong'o, who plays Nakia in the "Black Panther" films, revealed just what kind of experience she and the cast had.
Lupita Nyong'o teases an emotional and thrilling return to the world of Black Panther
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Lupita Nyong'o said of the experience of filming "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" in the wake of Chadwick Boseman's passing, "It was very therapeutic." The project sees her reunited with "Us" co-star Winston Duke as M'Baku, along with Letitia Wright as T'Challa's younger sister, Shuri, Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda, and Danai Gurira as Okoye. "For us as a cast, having lost our king, Chadwick Boseman, that was a lot to process, and in many ways, we're still processing it," revealed Nyong'o, sharing a grief that looks to have filtered into filming. "When you lose someone, I don't know when you stop missing them. And of course, we felt it so much, making this film without him."
But it sounds like along with that sense of loss will also be a lot of wonder, as the visually stunning trailer for the sequel film alludes to. "I think we've expanded the world of Wakanda in ways that will blow people's minds," Nyong'o revealed. "Not just Wakanda but the 'Black Panther' world ... I just cannot wait until it's not a secret anymore." Neither can we. November 11 can't come soon enough.