Lupita Nyong’o feels anxious about shooting “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” without Chadwick Boseman. Starring as Nakia in the 2018 MCU movie alongside Chadwick Boseman – who died from colon cancer at the age of 43 back in 2020 – in the title role, the 39-year-old actress explained that she found it “unfathomable” that director Ryan Coogler could find a way to bring a sequel to the screen without her former co-star.
“I didn’t have doubts – I had dread. Ryan had walked me through what the film was going to be when Chadwick was still alive. And so once we lost him, the thought that we could go on, it was just unfathomable to me,” she said.
However, the Oscar-winning actress went on to explain that what she was eventually shown prior to the production of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” – which sees Letitia Wright step into the leading role of Marvel superhero Shuri – was “so beautiful” in the end and moved her to tears.
She told Empire Magazine, “What Ryan ended up sharing with me was just so utterly truthful and beautiful. By the end of it, I was in tears.”
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He said, “Maturity is about being faced with impossible questions, and still making a choice and moving forward. This unique group is more like a band than it is a group of actors, and Chad was our lead singer. So for me, it was like, ‘How do I figure out a song that they can still get up there and sing?’, in light of what we were dealing with.”
Meanwhile, Ryan explained that he was able to “move forward” with the project following the death of Chadwick – who had suffered privately from cancer for four years – because of the “unique band of actors” around him, including the likes of Angela Bassett and Winston Duke.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is set for release on November 11.
