Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Cast Talks Chadwick Boseman, Rihanna, and Women Exploring Grief
For honor, for legacy, for Wakanda.
Four years after Black Panther comes the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever that finds that nation of Wakanda pitted against intervening world powers as they mourn the loss of their king T'Challa. The story parallels the real-life grief following the passing of actor Chadwick Boseman.
At the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever press conference, producer Kevin Feige revealed that Ryan Coogler had been at work for almost a a year on a sequel with T’Challa in it, but things changed when Bosewick passed suddenly. “When we lost Chadwick, all of that was poured into this movie,” he said. “Keeping the idea of a celebration of Wakanda and the character at the forefront, in addition to the grief that is going to come with that.”
Producer Nate Moore opened up about the layers the characters will express after dealing with this huge loss of a leader in the film. "As storytellers, you want to be as honest as possible with what the characters would experience in the film after they experience the loss of T’Challa. And that is not just grief. It's also sometimes joy, sometimes humor. It is all of the emotions anyone feels with any profound loss,” he shared. “But we had such a collection of talent and such a collection of characters, who all have a different point of view with that loss, that I think Ryan found ways to express all the different colors of grief through the ensemble. And that's not just the Wakandans, by the way, who definitely feel it, but it's the loss that Namor and the Talocan feel because of the loss of their homeland.”
Wakanda Forever really centers the story around the strong women that were in T’Challa’s life because they were the most affected by his passing. “It was the right story to tell. We focused on the people who were appropriate,” said Moore. “It’s not about pushing women forward or holding men back, it’s about telling the story that is organic. We are blessed with an amazing cast who breathes life into these characters and makes you wanna see what's happening with Shuri or what's happening with Okoye or what's happening with Nakia or what's happening with Ramonda. To not highlight them would've been a disservice to the story.”
Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, and Danai Gurira shared insight into how their characters represented various steps in the grieving process. “We meet [Shuri] in the first film and she is that ray of sunshine. She's so clothed and protected in royalty and love, and proud of her big brother taking the step, following on his father's legacy,” Wright said. “Her family encouraged her to be a genius and to be faithfully and wonderfully made. What does that look like when your heart is broken? I think the way it was written and the delicacy, the gentleness of how we approached it […] we were able to bring something that felt real, that felt truthful. I was able to really give my heart to it and give Shuri a full arc and hopefully people can really resonate with that and find some healing alongside us with it.”
Nyong’o talked about how she felt knowing that Shuri was able to express her grief, while Nakia had to be more put together. “I remember in the beginning, reading the script, and I was so envious of Letitia because she gets to be chaotic — and that's how I felt. I felt raw and wanted to express it. And Nakia, though, she is an example of someone who [is] just a little further along in terms of her processing,” she shared. “It's not like she has it all figured out, but in the first film, Ryan described her as T'Challa's oasis. And that really, really resonated with me. So when I was reading this script and thinking about where she is, I realized that what she was once to T'Challa, she now has the opportunity to offer Shuri. When we're talking about exploration of grief, it's really grounding to have someone who is befriending of the change for the people in the story, but also for an audience. The fact that she was T'Challa's love, in a way it allows an audience to know that it's okay.”
N’yongo continued: “And as much as I was frustrated with Ryan for doing that with Nakia, actually playing her was very therapeutic for me. I had to look beyond my frustrations with losing Chadwick and learn from her, learn from that wisdom that she seems to possess.”
Meanwhile Danai Gurira’s Okoye now finds herself thrown off balance for the first time. “I'm very thankful for the idea that these characters get to explore so many facets of their humanness. I think that is something that is crucial with a platform this unprecedented that we see a kaleidoscope of their humanness and the world gets to see that,” Gurira shared. “In direct contrast with what Lupita was going through, I felt quite displaced in the process. The key thing anchoring me was the goal of honoring him and the way he loved excellency. He loved to see us shine and loved to see us do our thing. He would always give us so much encouragement about doing great things.”
Wakanda Forever introduces us to new characters in Namor, Namora, and their community of Talocan. While they are antagonists to this story, they also share a similar wound to the Wakandans. Tenoch Huerta and Mabel Cadena called it an “honor” join the cast and represent the Indigenous and Mexican heritages. “We have Indigenous language for the first time in a movie like this. I feel proud about this challenge,” said Cadena. “This movie has a lot of diversity, a lot of colors, a lot of language, and I'm very proud to be part of something like this. I never thought I could be a superhero.”
This film also brings Rihanna back out of a six year music hiatus. “Rihanna has given us a whole career, a whole catalog of music, and now she's giving us make-up and clothing. I think the world would understand if she hung up her mic,” said director Ryan Coogler. “We were looking for a great artist who could tell the story of the film, embrace the themes of the film, and present them to the audience in a different packaging. That's what Kendrick [Lamar] did for us so beautifully with the first film.”
Coogler explained why Rihanna was the perfect person to contribute new music to the film with songs “Lift Me Up” and “Born Again.” “It made sense that it would be a woman, it made sense that it could be someone who could speak to, not necessarily the words, but the feeling of motherhood, because that's a major theme in this film. And I think it timed up, that she was in that kinda space in her life. She was open and it was really the trailer I think that, when she saw the performances that everybody was putting down in the trailer, that was what kind of put her over the edge. We collaborated with this incredible singer Tems. She and I wrote the words, Ludwig [Göransson] made the music. Once she played us the record, she said straight up, I did this for Chad.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters on November 11.
