Lupita Nyong'o & Danai Gurira discuss growing as characters while Tenoch Huerta & Wright talk introducing Namor & Ironheart to the MCU.

From director Ryan Coogler, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sees Wakandans figuring out what’s next when it comes to protecting their nation in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. With intervening world powers not only threatening their way of life, but also that of a dangerous hidden undersea nation, the Dora Milaje must work with their allies to forge a path that both ensures their safety and doesn’t allow them to lose all that is important to them.

During this press conference for the highly anticipated sequel, co-stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and Tenoch Huerta, along with director Coogler and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, talked about expressing their own grief along with the grief of their characters in this film, figuring out exactly what this story would be, the individual collaboration they each experienced with Coogler, exploring vulnerability, bringing in a new antagonist, having the women shine, and how Rihanna ended up writing songs for the film.

Question: Kevin, after Chadwick Boseman’s passing, one of the things you had to deal with, on top of the grief and mourning him, was the task of making this next installment. How did that process start, and how did it shift, as you guys were going about the task?

KEVIN FEIGE: The shock turned into, “Well, what do we do? What should we do? Should we do anything?” Relatively soon, it was determined that this amazing ensemble of characters, and this world that had been created on screen, needed to continue. And Ryan pours everything, and all of himself, into everything he does. Ryan had been working for almost a year on a version of the movie with T’Challa in it. He was pouring his life experience from making the first movie into that. And then, when we lost Chad, all of that was obviously then poured into this movie, keeping the idea of a celebration of Wakanda and the character at the forefront, in addition to the grief that, of course, is gonna come with that.

Ryan what were some of your favorite aspects of the collaborations you had on this film?

RYAN COOGLER: It was great. When you get to do a series of films, you get to have these mini-reunions. We had such an amazing time making the first one, but four years had passed, so it was just great to see everybody again, and to catch up and to see how everybody had grown. We got to see what new things folks had went through. We were also coming off of a pandemic. We actually started the film right smack in the middle of it. I think everybody experienced a sense of loneliness during the years that followed that crisis, so it was just great to see some of these folks and give them a big giant hug again. What we were all processing were things that people go through, with this feeling of grief and loss, but it was also great when you don’t have to do it alone. We were able to build that sense of community, and we were able to welcome new cast members. It was awesome. I really feel grateful.

Letitia, what was it like to explore Shuri’s anger, after being such a ray of joy in the first film?

LETITIA WRIGHT: First, it was about connecting with Ryan and having that heart-to-heart conversation about, “How do we take a gentle step forward?” It was so raw when we spoke. It was just Ryan talking me through how the different characters, and how the world was going to expand a bit, but also how we were gonna grow. We all take such different turns, and Shuri does too. We meet her in the first film, and she is that ray of sunshine. She’s so protected in royalty and love, and she’s proud of her big brother taking the step and following his father’s legacy. She just wants to create. I love Shuri in the first film because there was no limit to her. She was the person her brother went to for his protection and armor, and he encouraged that. Her family encouraged her to be a genius.

So, we follow on from that. What does that look like, when your heart is broken? It was just Ryan’s guidance on, how do we create a full arc of this human being, this young woman going through something alongside her fellow family members, in general, and Wakandans. With the way it was written and the gentleness of how we approached it, and how we always spoke and communicated, every step of the way, we were able to bring something that felt real and truthful. I was able to really give my heart to it, and give Shuri a full arc. Hopefully, people can really resonate with that and find some healing, alongside us.

Lupita, what was it like to balance your own grief with what Nakia is going through?

LUPITA NYONG’O: Reading the script, I was so envious of Letitia because she gets to be chaotic. That’s how I felt. I felt raw, and wanted to express it. Nakia is an example of someone who is just a little further along, in terms of her processing. It’s not like she has it all figured out, but in the first film, Ryan described her 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 realized that what she was once to T’Challa, she now has the opportunity to offer Shuri. It made a lot of sense, in terms of the structure and architecture of the story. When we were talking about the exploration of grief, it was really grounding to have someone who is befriending of the change for the people in the story, but also for an audience. The fact that she was T’Challa’s love, in a way, allows an audience to know that it’s okay. So, as much as I was frustrated with Ryan for doing that with Nakia, actually playing her was very therapeutic for me. I had to look beyond my frustrations with losing Chadwick, and learn from her, and learn from that wisdom that she seems to possess. For that, I’m really grateful to Ryan.

Danai, how was it for you to explore Okoye’s vulnerability?

DANAI GURIRA: Well, there are two sides of me. There’s the side that gets it, and then there’s the side that’s like, “Whoa, really? Do we have to?” That definitely came out when I first heard what this was going to be. And then, the other side took over, and I understood that this was actually great. I’m very thankful for the idea that these characters get to explore so many facets of their humanness. That is something that is crucial, honestly, with a platform this unprecedented. We see a kaleidoscope of their humanness, and the world gets to see that. That isn’t very common. We don’t get to see that much. In direct contrast with what Lupita was going through, I felt quite displaced, in the process. I think that was connected to what my character was experiencing, and also to the experience of the loss of our brother, and the process that was connected to that. It goes through the story.

So, the key thing for anchoring me was the goal of honoring him and the way he loved excellency. He loved to see us shine, and he loved to see us do our thing. We’d go to him and say, “What do you think about this? What do you think about this for my character?” He would always give us so much encouragement about doing great things, and he had such great taste. That was really an anchoring aspect throughout the process for me. The displacement that I felt from her, I felt with myself, so I had to anchor myself through comrades around me, in order to walk through it.

Tenoch, how was your experience coming into this, and bringing the fire to Wakanda?

TENOCH HUERTA: First, it was an honor. It’s tricky when you have a character like this because you’re the antagonist. You’re gonna destroy something, not just in the story, but the people. A lot of people identify with Wakanda, and I include myself with that narrative and representation, and everything. Now, I have to play the bad guy who tries to destroy that legacy. At the same time, Ryan found a way to make it human and to justify why people do that kind of thing. It doesn’t mean that it’s okay or not, or that it’s right or not, but it explains things. Maybe it’s not an excuse, but it’s a reason and an explanation for why the things happened. It’s beautiful because it’s human. We have these two characters making different decisions because of grief, and a threat. At the same time, they share the same wound, historically, and a desire to represent their cultures. How they solve the problem is about their personality and their own history, and that’s beautiful. That’s balance in a movie. Superhero movies can have this balance and these layers. It’s fantastic. It doesn’t happen too much, and it’s enjoyable.

Letitia, Shuri has become one of the smartest people in the MCU since her introduction, and now she’s joined by another genius in her friendship with Riri. What was that dynamic like on set, between you two, and what excited you about Shuri and Riri’s relationship?

WRIGHT: It was so much fun. I was really excited for Dominique [Thorne] and her performance. She is incredible. Riri is so much fun. I just love the fact that we get a beautiful opportunity to see another Black young girl just be a genius, and be at school doing her thing and inspiring so many. That was a cool connection. There were so many cool scenes between myself, Dominique, and Danai. Those were some of my most favorite scenes. I couldn’t cope on set. We were just busting up in the corner laughing because we were just bouncing off of each other. It was so much fun.

Danai, as someone who has done a lot of stunt work, how much more challenging was this film?

GURIRA: It was a lot of work, and thank God it was Alex [Livinalli]. He’s a big guy, and he’s so nice. I knew he was not gonna really hurt me. The beauty of it was that we had to find the psychology in it and work together. There was a lot of storytelling that went into the story being told. I’m one of those people that, from Day One, is like, “Show me my fight, so that I can learn it now.” They were like, “But Ryan has gotta approve it.” So, I was like, “Okay, Ryan, go look at it.”

Watching Alex work in that fight, with the astounding fight team, and the way they came up with it was really watching a craft in a whole other way. I was like, “Okay, so I gotta do that?” Then, it’s a process. That was months worth of work. The wonderful thing about working with Alex was that it was an amazing collaborative process. I’d have some little issues going on with my shoulder and would be like, “What are you doing to me, man? What are you trying to do here?” Thank God for astounding PT. I’ve gotta give my love and thanks to the women of NeuroSports. It was a very intricate process, and I’m just thankful for the team we had. We had an amazing team.

Tenoch, what was it like for you to bring Namor, and this ancient culture, into the MCU, and what was it like to do the underwater scenes? How much swimming experience did you have before this?

HUERTA: When Ryan and the team decided to provide Namor with this background, it was a fantastic move. In Latin America, especially Mexico, we deny our indigenous roots. It’s like a token sometimes. We deny it because it’s not about genes for us. Almost everybody in Mexico has indigenous or African roots. It’s about culture. Culturally, we have indigenous roots. Embracing those roots, and honoring them, is really important. I hope this helps people to embrace who they are. They taught us to be ashamed of who we are, but it’s time to cut that off and say, “This is who I am. I never had anything wrong with me.” The mistake was in the eyes of who was looking at us and judging us. Most of the time, it’s ourselves. So, it’s time to change the glasses and reconcile who we are with our ancestors and our grandparents, and embrace them and be a part of this movement. Now, it’s happening in a movie like this, with Black Panther, Ryan Coogler, and all of this team. That’s exciting.

And I didn’t know how to swim before this movie. But now, I can hold my breath for five minutes.

Ryan, this film really lets the women step up and shine. What led to that decision?

COOGLER: Joe Robert Cole, my co-writer, was there with us the whole time. It was a team effort. This was what made sense to us. What we wanted to look at was, when you lose somebody there’s a blast radius. It’s like a bomb that goes off, more so for who’s closest to it. That’s what we explored. The main characters and their identities were wrapped up in this man. That’s the truth of it. Every day that Shuri was alive, she had her brother. So, when she lost him, what we discovered while we were working on the script, and then eventually bringing it to life with the actors, was that she really lost her sense of self. She identified herself as this guy’s little sister, as his protector, and as the person who looked out for him. So, when she loses that, it makes her very unmoored. The tricky thing about that is that death comes for everybody. That’s the truth of it. The worst nightmare that you can have is, if something were to happen to you, the people who you love and leave behind would be unmoored. They would be lost, after you were gone. So, we were exploring all of those things. It wasn’t really about gender, directly. It was about who would be most affected.

Ryan, how did you convince Rihanna to go back into the studio to make music for this film?

COOGLER: I can’t take sole credit for that. We have an incredible composer, Ludwig Göransson, who’s also a music producer with a great reputation. He did “This is America” with Childish Gambino. I think Ludwig was a major factor. And a big thanks to Jay Brown at Roc Nation and Jay-Z, who’s a friend, who helped make the connection. Rihanna has given us a whole career, and a whole catalog of music, and now she’s given us make-up and clothing. I think the world would understand if she hung up her mic. I love her music so much, but I feel like she’s given us all that you could ask for. The truth is, we were looking for a great artist who could tell the story of the film, and embrace the themes of the film, and present them to the audience in a different packaging. That’s what Kendrick [Lamar] did for us so beautifully with the first film.

This film is different. It made sense that it would be a woman. It made sense that it could be someone who could speak to, not necessarily the words, but the feeling of motherhood because that’s a major theme in this film. It timed up that she was in that space in her life, and she was open. It was really the trailer, when she saw the performances that everybody was putting down, that was what put her over the edge. She said, “Hey, I wanna see this film. I wanna see if I can figure this out.” We collaborated with this incredible singer, Tems. She and I wrote the words, and Ludwig made the music. The music was recorded on three continents. Some of it was recorded from the first Black Panther when Ludwig was in Senegal. It came together in a lot of different ways. I’m super happy with it, and I feel super thankful. The truth is, once she played us the record, she said, straight up, “I did this for Chad.” So, it was him, man. Chad brought us all together. He just keeps on giving. So, I’m just really thankful that Rihanna was the latest gift to join the family.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters.

Christina Radish is a Senior Reporter at Collider. Having worked at Collider for over a decade (since 2009), her primary focus is on film and television interviews with talent both in front of and behind the camera. She is a theme park fanatic, which has lead to covering various land and ride openings, and a huge music fan, for which she judges life by the time before Pearl Jam and the time after. She is also a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association.