The stars and creators of Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gathered to discuss all of the passion, love and grief that went into the making of this incredibly powerful new film. After the passing of the Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman, it was clear this was an emotional experience for everyone involved.
The press junket featured stars Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Tenoch Huerta, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli, as well as director Ryan Coogler, producer Kevin Feige and producer Nate Moore.
Coogler was asked about getting this cast back together and working with so many talented people once again.
“One of the great things when you get to do a series of films is that you get to have these mini reunions and it was such an amazing time we had making the first one and four years had passed and it was just great to see everybody again,” Coogler said. “What we were all processing, it’s things that people go through, it’s feelings of grief and loss but it’s also great when you don’t have to do it alone.”
Coogler does a great job of balancing an exciting new story with a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman and Feige was asked how this task was approached.
“The shock turned into, ‘what do we do, what should we do, should we do anything?’ And I think relatively soon it was determined this amazing ensemble of characters and this world that had been created on screen needed to continue and Ryan pours everything and all of himself into everything he does and had been working for almost a year on a version of the movie with T’Challa in it, and was finding and pouring his life experience from making the first movie into that,” Feige explained. “And then when we lost Chad, all of that obviously was then poured into this movie as well.”
Moore was asked about this new Wakanda-focused story and how the idea came to be after everything that has occurred both in the real world and in the MCU.
“I think as storytellers you just want to be as honest as possible with what the characters would experience in the film after they experienced 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,” Moore said. “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 that ensemble.”
Moore would later go on to explain why the creative team chose to focus on the women of Wakanda for this new film after the loss of T’Challa.
“It was just the right story to tell. These were the characters who were most affected by T’Challa’s passing and so we chose to focus on the people who were appropriate,” Moore said. “It’s not about pushing women forward or holding men back, it’s about telling the story that is organic. And I think sometimes, maybe from the outside, there is a thought that there are agendas at play. It’s just telling good stories.”
And speaking of those women of Wakanda, Wright discussed the evolution of Shuri and the range of emotions she had to work through for this film.
“We meet her 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 this step following in his father’s legacy and she just wants to create,” Wright said. “She was the person her brother went to for his protection, his armor. And he encouraged that, her family encouraged her to be a genius and to be fearfully and wonderfully made, so we follow on from that. What does that look like when your heart is broken? And I think it was just Ryan’s guidance on how do we create a full arc of this human being, of this young woman going through something alongside her fellow family members and general and Wakandans.”
Nyong’o also returns to Wakanda, reprising her role as Nakia, and the actress shared her thoughts on the character’s processing of grief.
“I remember reading the script and being jealous of Letitia because she got to be chaotic and that’s how I felt. I felt raw and I wanted to express it,” Nyong’o laughed. “Nakia though she is an example of someone who, she’s just a little further along in terms of her processing. And it’s not like she has it all figured out but she, in the first film, Ryan described her as T’Challa’s oasis, and that really resonated with me and 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.”
One character who is not typically so open to showing her vulnerability is Okoye and Gurira shared her thoughts on how different it was for her to portray that.
“I’m very thankful for the idea that these characters get to explore so many facets of their humanness. And I think that that is something that is crucial honestly with a platform this unprecedented, that we see all these, a kaleidoscope of their humanness and the world gets to see that,” Gurira said. “I think in direct contrast with what Lupita was going through, I felt quite displaced in the process and I think that was connected to what my character was experiencing.”
It’s not just returning characters in this film though. There are some exciting new characters as well, starting with Namor. Huerta discussed what it was like to play the villain of the film.
“It is tricky when you have a character like this because you’re the antagonist. You’re going to destroy something that is valuable not just in the story but the people, the people outside. A lot of people feel identification with Wakanda, and I include myself in Wakanda and the narrative and the representation and everything and so now I have to plays the bad guy who destroys or tries to destroy that legacy,” Huerta laughed. “But at the same tie I think Ryan, the script and, the found a way to make it human, to justify why people do that kind of thing. It doesn’t mean that is ok or not, that it’s right or not, but it explains. Yeah maybe it’s not an excuse but it’s a reason.”
It’s not just a villain Huerta is playing though. It’s also an iconic Marvel character known at times as the Sub-Mariner and the king of Atlantis. Interestingly, Huerta shared that he actually didn’t know how to swim prior to being cast as the character.
“Yeah it was tricky,” Huerta laughed. “Yeah I didn’t know how to swim before this movie, but now I can hold my breath for five minutes.”
That humble brag turned the attention to Cadena, who was said to hold the record among the cast for holding her breath for eight minutes. Cadena also elaborated on the work she and the rest of the cast put into this film.
“We had to face a lot of challenges to make this new world. We were training a lot, physical, mental, because I think I needed to make my mind very strong and I needed to learn, English, Mayan. It’s amazing, we have an indigenous language for the first time in a movie like this. To me, I feel proud about this challenge,” Cadena said. “As a Mexican woman, a Latin-American woman, I’m like ‘oh my god, this is amazing!’ 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 because it’s not just a superhero movie.”
Livinalli spoke a bit more to those physical challenges of making this film, specifically one scene that really pushed the actors’ limits.
“We trained for months, me and Danai, we were in and out just rehearsing and rehearsing and rehearsing,” Livinalli said of a particular fight scene with Gurira’s Okoye. “For me it was such a beautiful moments to see when we started and see the progress of our dance that came together. And not only that but getting to know her as a person created a bond when we shot the fight scene and I’m just very grateful that it was with her.”
Wright also mentioned another new character who wasn’t in attendance for the junket. Dominique Thorne portrays Riri Williams in the film and shared a lot of screen time with Shuri.
“It was so much fun. I’m really excited for Dominique and the performance you guys are about to see,” Wright said. “She is incredible. Riri is so much fun and I just love the fact that we get a beautiful opportunity to see another black young girl just be a genius and be at school just doing her thing and inspire so many. So that was a cool connection.”
Of course, one of the biggest stories surrounding this film recently has been the return of Rihanna who has created a couple of new songs for the film’s soundtrack. Coogler was asked how they managed to bring in the talented musical artist.
“Look, Rihanna has given us a whole career, a whole catalog of music and now she’s giving us makeup and clothing and I think the world would understand if she hung up her mic. And I would completely understand because I love her music so much, I feel like she’s given all that you could ask for,” Coogler said. “But the truth is, we were looking for a great artist who could tell the story of the film and 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, and this film is different. It made sense that it would be a woman, it made sense that it would 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 just timed up that she was in that kind of space in her life and she was open.”
You can listen to Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” now and see Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in theaters on November 11.