LOS ANGELES (AP) â Letitia Wright hit the Marvel Cinematic Universe scene as King TâChallaâs joyfully witty younger sister in 2018âs blockbuster âBlack Panther.â But in the new sequel, the actorâs usual easygoing character delivers a more serious tone while dealing with grief.
Wright's character takes center stage as Shuri who ventures into womanhood after the death of T'Challa. Sheâll be looked upon to take the iconic Black Panther mantle in âBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever,â which releases in theaters Friday. Chadwick Boseman, who played T'Challa died in August 2020.
In between âPantherâ films, Wright took on a few movie projects that exercised her dramatic acting chops.
âI always try to do things that are outside the box and what people wouldnât expect,â said Wright, who starred in dramas âThe Silent Twinsâ and âAisha.â She also stars in âSurrounded,â which releases next year. The actor said each of those projects challenged her enough to âstretch me as an artist.â
âThat naturally helped me grow a lot more,â said the actor, whose Shuri character also appeared in âAvengers: Infinity Warâ and âAvengers: Endgameâ as Wakanda's princess and chief scientist. âWe know Shuri as the fun, vibrant sister of the first film. ⊠But in the film, we really followed that journey of womanhood for her.â
Wright credits director Ryan Coogler for ushering Shuriâs maturation along in his rewritten script following Bosemanâs unexpected . The director carried an even heavier burden to deliver a strong script â especially after âBlack Pantherâ broke box office records, earned $700 million domestically during its theatrical run and became the first superhero film nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
For the "Black Panther'' follow, Coogler had developed a screenplay centered around TâChalla grieving lost time following Thanosâ snap in âAvengers: Infinity War,â which caused a five-year âblip.â But after Boseman's death, Coogler and filmmaker Joe Robert Cole went back to the drawing board. They worked up a script that delved more into the concept of Wakandaâs grief in the wake of TâChallaâs death.
Coogler said Bosemanâs family signed off on his characterâs ârespectfulâ death in âWakanda Forever.â In the new film, the Wakandans are put in a peculiar spot to protect their nation without TâChalla against a new nemesis, Namor, a sub-marine Talocan leader who has extraordinary mutant-like abilities and can fly with the aid of tiny wings on his ankles. Namor is played by Tenoch Huerta.
âThis script was born of the truth in our lives that we had lost Chadwick Boseman,â said Lupita Nyongâo, who plays Nakia, a war spy and TâChallaâs lover. She said the characters dealt with T'Challa's loss differently in the film.
âFor me personally, I was relieved that we got to speak our truth,â Nyongâo said. âWe got to express the grief that we were feeling and put it to good use.â
Wright and Nyongâo said they used their grief over Boseman to fuel their performances, while Coogler said his mournful remembrance of the late actor helped motivate him through his writing and directing process. The director said several photos of Boseman were posted on set, and a prop master put inside Coogler's trailer a shield and spear that TâChalla held during a duel with Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger at Warrior Falls in âBlack Panther.â
Before filming the project, the entire cast â including the newcomers â visited Bosemanâs burial site. It turned into a bonding moment.
âWe tried to make a movie to honor the legacy of Chadwick,â Huerta said. âThe movie is about grieving. It was happening at the same time as reality. They were able to integrate what was happening in real life into fiction. Art is kind of therapy. It helped us deal with the reality and things we canât understand.â
The cast leaned on each other during the filming process, which had several setbacks and obstacles. Production took longer than expected after Wright was and several cast and crew members tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Wright was attacked for sharing an anti-vaccination video, and Coogler was briefly handcuffed by Atlanta police after being earlier this year.
âWe certainly had bumps in the road, but people pulled together,â said Nate Moore, the vice president of production and development at Marvel Studios. He was a producer on the âCaptain America: The Winter Soldier,â âEternalsâ and executive producer on âBlack Panther.â
Moore said the filming experience of âWakanda Foreverâ was the toughest, but he said the whole cast and crew showed resilience through adversity.
âThey didnât pull apart,â Moore said. âIf it were a different filmmaker, who didnât have such great relationships with everybody, we wouldâve seen a lot more partition from the crew, which we didnât really. The cast couldâve gotten frustrated with the stopping and starting that we were forced to do, but they didnât. They believe in what this movie was about and Ryanâs vision. As hard as it was, we had each other.â
Nyongâo said cast members comforted each other in grieving Boseman while attempting to keep the kingdom of Wakanda moving forward.
âIt was joyful and sometimes it was hard,â she said. âBut there was a lot of levity as well, because we had so many powerful, joyful memories of Chadwick to share with one another.â
Jonathan Landrum Jr., The Associated Press
