Praise the ancestors!
Marvel Studios has begun production on the sequel for the Oscar-winning, Black Panther. The highly- anticipated second film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, started production last Tuesday at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta, according to Variety.
Returning to direct is Ryan Coogler, fresh off a Best Picture nomination for Judas and The Black Messiah.
‘Make Chadwick proud’
The original cast; Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Lupita Nyong’o and Florence Kasumba are expected to reprise their roles. As for Micheal B. Jordan, who played Killmonger, the chances are slight but he adds that anything can happen.
Missing, of course, is the leading man himself, Chadwick Boseman. The Ma Rainey star died in August 2020 at the age of 43 after battling colon cancer. There are no plans to recast Boseman’s character, T’Challa, or replicate his body with computer graphics.
“It’s clearly very emotional without Chad,” Feige told Variety. “But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.”
Honoring Boseman’s memory
No one knows what the plot is going to look like but Queen Mother, aka Angela Bassett, who is also slated to return to the role, shared in a recent interview that there are five versions of the script.
“There have been about five incarnations of the script and I hear another one’s coming,” she told Entertainment Tonight in a July 7 interview. But she adds that the late King T’Challa will be honored throughout it.
“Of course, with our dear king going on to glory, a lot of things had to be shifted and changed, so thankfully, Ryan [Coogler] and Joe Robert Cole, they’re just such masterful storytellers that they’ve found a way into this world and hopefully it will be satisfying, I think, for the fans and it will be honorable of our Chad. We love our king.”
‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ premieres in 2022
Black Panther became an iconic staple in Black culture when it opened in theatres in February 2018 and earned an astonishing $1.34 billion worldwide.
Breaking not only box-office records, Black Panther, broke the stigma of Black-led films’ inability to compete with the industry’s best. Nominated for seven Oscars, it became the first superhero movie nominated for best picture.
On track to release July 8, 2022, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be a part of Marvel’s phase 4 movies, which include 26 new releases, including Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3.
A television series set in Wakanda is also in production. It will premiere on Disney+. The series is part of a development deal with Coogler and Proximity Media company.
