“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” star Danai Gurira explains how the film’s new cast helped her and other returning stars mourn the late Chadwick Bozeman. After its release in 2018, “Black Panther” quickly became a hit with both viewers and critics, introducing the fictional African nation of Wakanda and featuring the main character Bozeman. Bozeman’s tragic death in 2020 shocked fans around the world, and many wondered how Marvel would continue the story of “Black Panther” with its favorite star actor in the announced sequel.
The first trailer for the movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was released as part of the Marvel Comic-Con panel in San Diego last weekend, introducing viewers to the first shots of the long-awaited sequel. Without revealing too much about what awaits us in the upcoming film, the emotional trailer shows the return of many familiar faces, as well as introducing new characters played by Dominic Thorne and Michaela Coel. Despite the extremely positive reviews about the trailer, the path to the creation of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was not easy, since the production of the film continued not only after the tragic death of Bozeman, but also suffered from numerous stops due to the coronavirus pandemic. .
Now, in a new interview with Variety after the film’s SDCC panel, Gurira touches on what it was like to shoot the film without Bozeman, explaining that Bozeman’s death affected everyone on set at different times and in different ways. The star goes on to explain that newcomers like Thorne and Coel ultimately played a crucial role in supporting the returning actors, supporting them through particularly difficult days of filming. Check out Gurira’s full comment below:
“We didn’t know when and how it would hit us. He struck us in different ways and at different moments. Sometimes, just going on stage and listening to Ryan [Coogler] speak before it, we were amazed, for example, watching it. And there are different moments when you are just amazed by it. And Dominic [Thorne] and Michaela [Coel] said beautifully that they really supported us. I had a really hard day on set and she was by my side. And you just never knew when it was going to be a really hard day. So they were really wonderful, our new family. They understood that they were in a place where grief was happening, and they really supported us. We have a great new family.”
The trailer for “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hints at how the film will handle Bozeman’s death, with a large mural on the wall of the building that seems to pay homage to the fallen leader of Wakanda. Since the trailer turned out to be such an emotional experience for fans, the experience of filming the film must have been even more difficult for the cast and crew. While it is unclear how big the roles of Thorne and Coel will be in the final film, it is clear that they played an integral role behind the scenes, helping Gurira and other returning stars cope with their grief.
Although the newly released trailer teases an emotional sequel to the Black Panther story, a number of questions remain about how the film will explain T’Challa’s death. Like their real-life actors, it’s possible that Iron Man Thorne’s successor, Riri Williams and Aneka Koel, will help characters like Okoye Gurira, Angela Bassett’s Ramonda and Letitia Wright’s brother-in-law mourn the loss of the late Wakanda leader. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” promises to be one of the most emotional films of the MCU, and fortunately, the actors have teamed up to help each other survive the tragic death of Bozeman.
