Black Panther arrived in theaters in 2018, and went on to take in over $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office to become the highest-grossing movie ever featuring actors of color in the lead roles. It was also the first superhero film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
However, there was a perception that Marvel was taking a big risk on the project at the time, and it seems those within the studio were also more than a little concerned about how the movie would ultimately be received.
While speaking about her latest movie, The Wild Robot, at a BFI London Film Festival event (via THR), Lupita Nyong’o was shown a clip from Black Panther featuring her character, Nakia, and Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, and became emotional when thinking about her late friend.
“The grief is the love, and no place to put it,” she said. “No, no… It’s fine. I don’t want to run away from the tears or the grief. You just live with it. That experience will never be separate from the love that was formed. I watch this clip and I’m filled with grief and I don’t know whether I’ll ever be done shedding my tears from losing my friend. But I’m like, we get to see him alive. And that’s so wonderful.”
Nyong'o went on to recall the incredibly positive response to the movie, while admitting that the studio did have some reservations.
“There was a lot of fear, definitely from the executives… Marvel was shaking a little bit in their boots!” she laughed, adding, “We were too because we were like, we only get to do this once. And we gotta do it right. But ultimately, it totally shattered the myth that Black doesn’t sell.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever didn't quite reach the same heights as the original, but was still a big hit.
The sequel ended with the new Black Panther, Shuri (Letitia Wright), making her way to a beach in Haiti to burn her funeral garb and finally allow herself to make peace with her brother's death. Then, in the mid-credits scene, we see Nakia join her with a young boy (Divine Love Konadu-Sun) by her side.
The lad is introduced as Toussaint, and we soon learn that he is the son of T’Challa and Nakia. As Shuri chats with her nephew, he tells her that his real name is T'Challa. This obviously suggests that the boy will eventually grow to take on the mantle of Black Panther, and possibly even rule Wakanda as king.
It'll obviously be a while before T'Challa II comes of age, but when he does, Nyong'o believes he is the right person to succeed his late father.
"Nakia is uniquely placed to show him the ways, because she is his link to his father, and they've chosen to raise their son in the outside world," she said during a previous interview with IGN. "And so, that vision of a Wakanda that is open to the outside world is what he's uniquely poised to assume -- you know, the Wakanda of tomorrow, not the Wakanda of yesterday."
Nyong'o will almost certainly return as Nakia down the line, although a third Black Panther movie has yet to be officially announced.