Lupita Nyong’o, who has reprised her role as Nakia
in the sequel to Marvel’s Black Panther, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how she felt filming the latest movie without the leading actor, Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 of colon cancer.Last Saturday at the San Diego Comic-Con, Nyong’o participated as a speaker on the Marvel Cinematic Universe panel. She talked about how the cast and crew dealt with making the film and how losing Boseman affected the cast.
“It’s been a doozy of a few years for everybody,” Nyong’o, who plays Nakia in the films, told THR. “For us as a cast, having lost our king, Chadwick Boseman,
that was a lot to process, and in many ways, we’re still processing it. When you lose someone, I don’t know when you stop missing them. And of course, we felt it so much, making this film without him.”She also expressed how making the sequel, which Ryan Coogler is once again directing, had its challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that still has a grip on the world.
“To make this film against all odds is a powerful statement unto itself, and I am very proud that we did it. It was very therapeutic. It restored a sense of hope for me in making it, and I think we’ve expanded the world of Wakanda in ways that will blow people’s minds — not just Wakanda, but the Black Panther
world. It’s gonna blow people’s minds, and I just cannot wait until it’s not a secret anymore.”The sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is slated to debut later this year on Nov. 11.