Lupita Nyong'o shares her thoughts on recasting T'Challa for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The actor says that the Marvel sequel's rewritten script "honored the truth" of grieving Chadwick Boseman

By Katie Chow  |  October 19, 2022 | 3:52pm
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Lupita Nyong'o shares her thoughts on recasting T'Challa for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
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Any new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe automatically becomes a hotly-anticipated release, but the pressure is particularly on for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which hits theaters next month. Back in 2018, the first installment immediately became a cultural juggernaut, grossing over $1 billion at the box office. The road to the sequel hasn’t been an easy one, due to pandemic-related delays and, of course, the 2020 death of star Chadwick Boseman.

In a new profile from The Hollywood Reporter, Lupita Nyong’o, who plays a Wakandan spy and T’Challa’s on-and-off girlfriend, opens up about returning to the role amidst grieving Boseman, something incorporated into the film. Writer/director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole retooled their script to depict a mourning nation and a new character taking up the title of Black Panther.

“Ryan wrote something that so honored the truth of what every one of us was feeling, those of us who knew Chadwick,” Nyong’o tells THR. “He created something that could honor that and carry the story forward. By the end, I was weeping.”

In the wake of Boseman’s death, Coogler and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige decided against recasting the role, which has been controversial amongst viewers who were hoping to see T’Challa’s story continue. Nyong’o, for one, supports the choice.

“That is not the death of the Black Panther, that’s the whole point,” she says. “It’s laying to rest [T’Challa] and allowing for real life to inform the story of the movies. I know that there are all sorts of reasons why people want him to be recast, but I don’t have the patience. I don’t have the presence of mind, or I don’t have the objectivity to argue with that. I don’t. I’m very biased.”

Though Nakia is not a part of the royal family, many fans hope that she’ll be the next Black Panther, given Nyong’o’s Oscar-winning star power and how the character’s values have guided the future of Wakanda. Of course, she’s not about to share whether or not she’ll get to suit up in Wakanda Forever.

“If I told you that, I might as well just… swim into the ocean and never be seen again,” Nyongo quips.

 
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