Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Danai Gurira explains how the film's new cast members helped her and other returning stars grieve the late Chadwick Boseman. Upon its release in 2018, Black Panther quickly became a hit with both audiences and critics, introducing the fictional African nation of Wakanda and featuring Boseman's titular hero. Boseman's tragic death in 2020 shocked fans around the world, with many wondering how Marvel would continue the Black Panther story with its beloved star actor in the announced sequel.
The first trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released as part of Marvel's San Diego Comic-Con panel this past weekend, treating audiences to the first footage from the highly-anticipated sequel. While not revealing too much about what is in store for the upcoming film, the emotional trailer sees the return of numerous familiar faces while also introducing new characters played by Dominique Thorne and Michaela Coel. Despite the overwhelmingly positive reception to the trailer, the road to creating Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was not an easy one, with production on the film not only continuing in the wake of Boseman's tragic death but also suffering from numerous shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Now, in a new interview with Variety following the film's SDCC panel, Gurira touches on how it felt to make the film without Boseman, explaining that Boseman's death affected everyone on set at various times and in various ways. The star goes on to explain that newcomers like Thorne and Coel ultimately played a crucial role in supporting the returning cast members, holding them up during particularly difficult filming days. Check out Gurira's full comment below:
“We didn’t know when and how it was going to hit us. It hit us various ways and at various moments. Sometimes just walking onto the stage and hearing Ryan [Coogler] talk before that, we were getting hit, like, watching it. And there are various moments where you’re just being hit by that. And it was beautifully said by Dominique [Thorne] and by Michaela [Coel] that they really were support for us. There was a really hard day that I had on set and she was there for me. And you just never knew when it was going to be a really hard day. And so they were really amazing, our new family. They understood they were in a place where grief was happening and they really held us up. We got great new family.”
The trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hints at how the film will handle Boseman's passing, with a large mural on a building wall appearing to pay tribute to Wakanda's fallen leader. With the trailer proving to be such an emotional experience for fans, the experience of actually filming the movie must have been even harder for the cast and crew. While it's unclear how big Thorne and Coel's roles will be in the final film, it's clear that they played an integral role behind-the-scenes helping Gurira and other returning stars work through their grief.
Although the recently-released trailer teases an emotional continuation of the Black Panther story, a number of questions remain about how the film will explain T'Challa's passing. As their actors did in real life, it's possible that Thorne's Iron Man successor, Riri Williams, and Coel's Aneka will help characters like Gurira's Okoye, Angela Bassett's Ramonda, and Letitia Wright's Shuri grieve the loss of Wakanda's late leader. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is shaping up to be one of the most emotional MCU films yet, and, thankfully, it seems like the cast banded together to help each other get through Boseman's tragic passing.
Source: Variety
