The director and stars of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever have spoken about creating the film without Chadwick Boseman. Their struggles of replacing the actor and his character, are not hidden from fans. But, with the film finally releasing globally, director Ryan Coogler and actors Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett have now opened up about being on set without him, and more importantly, the moment they learned about his death.
After the immense success of 2018’s Black Panther, it immediately became Coogler's responsibility to create a sequel. While the screenplay for the sequel was being developed, news of Boseman's death shattered the hearts of thousands of fans around the world and the entire Marvel fraternity. But, the show had to go on, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was brought to life. However, most of Boseman's co-stars cannot forget the moment they heard the news, and how the first day of being on set without him felt.
After Boseman's death, it was revealed that no one on the Black Panther cast and crew list knew about his cancer diagnosis. While many had noticed a deterioration in health, nobody knew what was really going on. During an interview with Variety, Wright revealed that she “didn’t put the dots together.” The actor plays T'Challa's sister Shuri in Black Panther, and in real life, she thought of Boseman as a brother as well. “Bro was very private. He wanted to always protect us,” she said when asked about his diagnosis. She vividly remembers the day she heard about his death, which began with a text from someone she knows that read, “my condolences.”
At first, Wright was confused, but after seeing several messages about Boseman and then reading the news online, she assumed it was a prank. “This is not a good joke,” she thought to herself back then and decided to call and text Boseman's cell phone. It was eventually co-star Daniel Kaluuya who convinced her that the news was in fact true and revealed that Boseman's family had already issued a statement. She confessed that it was a “downward spiral” after that, especially as she was stuck in London due to the lockdowns imposed following the pandemic.
While promoting the film comes with the job, it was extremely difficult for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever team to answer questions about Boseman and their personal grief. “We’ve been managing it or dealing with it or growing from it or moving onward from the moment that we heard Chadwick had passed,” Bassett said during the interview. She revealed how they all have been “going through whatever cycles of grief that human beings go through” ever since the news broke.
When Coogler was asked about filming without Boseman, he got rather emotional and confessed to being a whole “different person” since Black Panther was released. “You don’t know what your life is going to bring. You don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said, referring to the shocking news of Boseman's death. While the process of creating Black Panther 2 has been a difficult one, the entire cast and crew of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hold the film close to their hearts, and have all dedicated it to Boseman and his legacy.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.
Source: Variety