Black Panther pushes Wakanda forward after Bosman

Los Angeles (AFP) – Letitia Wright appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe scene as King T’Challa’s hilarious younger sister in the 2018 movie Black Panther. But in the remake, the actor’s usual simple character offers a more serious tone while dealing with grief.

Wright’s character takes center stage as Shuri who ventures into femininity after T’Challa’s death. She will be seen to take on the iconic Black Panther gown in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which hits theaters Friday. Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Challa, passed away in August 2020.

Among the Panther films, Wright participated in a few film projects in which she practiced her dramatic acting chops.

“I always try to do things outside the box and what people don’t expect,” said Wright, who starred in the dramas The Silent Twins and Aisha. She also stars in the movie “Surrounded” which will be released next year. The actress said that each of these projects challenged her enough to “stretch me as an artist.”

“It naturally helped me grow a lot more,” said the actor, whose character Shura has also appeared in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame as Princess Wakanda and chief scientist. “We know Shuri as the fun, vibrant sister to the first movie. …but in the movie, we really followed through on that journey of womanhood for her.”

Wright credits director Ryan Coogler for launching Shuri’s maturation in his rewritten script after Bosman’s unexpected death from colon cancer.. The director took on an even greater burden to deliver a strong script — especially after Black Panther broke box office records, grossed $700 million domestically during its run and became the first superhero movie to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

In order to follow up on Black Panther, Coogler developed a script revolving around T’Challa’s lost grief after a shot of Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War,” which caused a “surprise picture” for five years. But after Boseman’s death, Coogler and director Joe Robert Cole returned to the drawing board. They put together a text that delves more into the concept of Wakanda’s grief in the wake of T’Challa’s death.

Coogler said the Boseman family signed off on the death of his “respectful” character in Forever Wakanda. In the new film, the Wakandans are placed in a strange place to protect their nation without T’Challa against a new enemy, Namor, a Talocan semi-marine commander who has extraordinary mutant-like abilities and can fly with the help of tiny wings on his ankles. Played by Namor Tenoc Huerta.

“This script was born out of the fact in our lifetime that we lost Chadwick Boseman,” said Lupita Nyong’o, who plays Nakia, a war spy and T’Challa’s mistress. She said the characters handled T’Challa’s loss differently in the film.

“For me personally, it was relieved that we told our truth,” Nyong’o said. “We should express the sadness we were feeling and put it to good use.”

Wright and Nyong’o said they used their grief over Bosman to fuel their performance, while Coogler said his melancholy memorial for the late actor helped motivate him through his writing and directing process. The director said that several photos of Bozeman were posted on set, and the prop master inside Coogler’s trailer placed a shield and spear that T’Challa carried during a duel with Michael B.

Prior to filming the project, the entire cast – including the newcomers – visited Bosman’s burial site. It turned into a bonding moment.

“We tried to make a movie that honors Chadwick’s legacy,” Huerta said. “The movie is about sadness. It was happening at the same time as reality. They were able to incorporate what was happening in real life into fiction. Art is a form of therapy. It helped us deal with reality and the things we can’t understand.”

The actors leaned on each other during the filming process, which had many setbacks and obstacles. Production took longer than expected after Wright was injured while filming a stunt, Several members of the crew and crew have tested positive for COVID-19. Wright has been attacked for sharing an anti-vaccination video, and his hands were briefly handcuffed by Atlanta police after he mistakenly thought he was a bank robber. earlier this year.

“We’ve had bumps in the road for sure, but people really stuck together,” said Nate Moore, vice president of production and development at Marvel Studios. He was a producer on “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and “Eternals” and executive producer on “Black Panther”.

Moore said the experience filming “Wakanda Forever” was the hardest, but said the entire cast and crew showed resilience through adversity.

“They didn’t break up,” Moore said. “If he had been a different filmmaker, and not having such great relationships with everyone, we would have seen a lot of splitting from the crew, which we didn’t really. The cast would have been frustrated with the stop-and-go that we were forced to do, but they didn’t. They do. They believe in what this movie is about and Ryan’s vision. As hard as it was, we had each other.”

Nyong’o said the cast members comforted each other in Bosman’s grief as they tried to keep the Kingdom of Wakanda moving forward.

“It was fun and at times difficult,” she said. “But there was a lot of shivering as well, because we had so many strong, joyful memories of Chadwick to share with each other.”