Ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hitting cinema screens this weekend, one of its stars, Lupita Nyong’o, who plays the character of Nakia, reflects on the death of her close pal and co-star Chadwick Boseman. Boseman, who starred in the 2018 Marvel blockbuster as the iconic T’Challa/Black Panther, died in August 2020 at the age of 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer.
In an exclusive conversation with News18, the Oscar wining actor opened up about how Boseman’s death affected the cast, why no one else could play his part and how her character has evolved in the new film.
Tell us how was the first day on the sets like without Chadwick Boseman?
It was weird, surreal, sad, beautiful and it was a sombre moment for me. At the same time, there was something miraculous about the fact that we (the cast and crew) were there for each other and we could depend on each other. So in the end it was quite therapeutic to go back to Wakanda together. 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.
Do you think not replacing Chadwick’s character T’Challa by another actor was a good move by Marvel?
I think Chadwick left a very big hole. It is hard for me to imagine anyone else playing the role of T’Challa. But the good news is that many people can don the mantle of Black Panther so in not replacing him, it doesn’t kill the story altogether. Wakanda Forever honours’ Chadwick’s legacy and to allow for art to imitate life. We had gone through a very pivotal loss and this wasn’t restricted to the cast and crew but also his fans. The power of cinema is that it can address real issues and our issue was we had lost Chadwick too early. I am glad that we did not replace him. We did not ignore the pain we were going through. Instead we addressed it and we have hopefully provided a film to the people who have lost hope and encourage them to move forward.
How has your character Nakia evolved in Wakanda Forever?
In the first film, Ryan described my character as T’Challa’s oasis. And that really, really resonated with me. So when I was reading this script and thinking about where she is, I realised that what she was once to T’Challa, she now has the opportunity to offer Shuri. And it made a lot of sense in terms of the structure and architecture of the story. When we’re talking about exploration of grief, it’s really grounding to have someone who is, I want to say, befriending of the change for the people in the story, but also for an audience. And the fact that she was T’Challa’s love, in a way I guess it allows an audience to know that it’s okay. And as much as I was frustrated with Ryan [laugh] for doing that with Nakia, actually playing her was very therapeutic for me. You know, because it had me — I had to look beyond my frustrations with losing Chadwick, and learn from her and learn from wisdom that she possesses.
Any plans to visit India and also have you watched any Hindi films?
I have never visited India but would love to come there. I grew up in Kenya which had a huge Indian diaspora so there is a lot of Indian culture that I enjoyed. I watched a lot of popular Bollywood movies in Kenya and have always been a big fan of them.
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