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In the face of tragedy, the women of Wakanda rose to the occasion in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In 2018’s Black Panther, Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa also heavily relied on the film’s female characters, starting with his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), his mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), his partner Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), and the Dora Milaje warriors. Following Boseman’s death in 2020 and T’Challa’s passing in the film, the women come to the rescue once again in the sequel. This time around, they also have reinforcements with the addition of the rebellious Dora Milaje warrior, Aneka (Michaela Coel), and the astounding Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne).
They all work together to assist Shuri as she deals with her grief while she transitions from being the king’s little sister to being the leader and protector of the African nation and its people. The film accurately encapsulates the way women have uplifted the societies and communities they live in since the beginning of time. Mothers, sisters, and daughters rarely ever have the time or space to mourn the loss or absence of a patriarchal figure before they have to step in to fill that role. Aside from Ramonda losing her son, Shuri is the one who is most affected by T’Challa’s death.
The way the film and its characters deal with their grief might be familiar territory for viewers who have gone through a similar loss. Wright played a younger, playful, and intelligent little sister in Black Panther. In Wakanda Forever, we see her grow into a fearless leader who at first uses her despair and anger as her driving force until she finds herself again. “Channeling your pain into power is definitely a motivation for the way I approached the script,” Wright tells Complex during a recent press junket. “The way I approached Shuri and just sharing that with our audience members can really help people to heal and move forward positively.”
Wright says that leading this cast of women was a great honor and joy for her, even while she mourned the loss of her costar and friend. “It was such a treat to come to set and just be with people who are just as dedicated to the craft and just as dedicated to the story as you are,” the actress says. “Everyone’s quite different. It’s like different type of sauces but when you mix all of these beautiful sauces together, you have a film that could be so impactful for everyone. When we have these beautiful personalities and women coming together that can empower and move and shift the story and the voices forward, we’ve done something incredible.”
Each woman in the film is instrumental in taking this story to a new, more emotional level. Danai Gurira’s Okoye has been a formidable force since the first film as the leader of the Dora Milaje who is ready to defend Wakanda and its kingdom by any means necessary. In Wakanda Forever, she takes on the role of looking after Shuri now that her big brother is gone. The chemistry between Gurira and Wright’s characters is electric in every scene they share and, according to the actress, that’s a reflection of the relationship they have off-screen. “Me and Letitia are just very, very close so we love working together and we had a lot of fun,” Gurira tells Complex. “That’s a beautiful thing that we got to have in the course of a very epic film that also was dealing with loss and grief. But we got to have a lot of fun in certain parts of our filming.”
Without giving too much away, Okoye has a life-changing arc in Wakanda Forever because of Shuri which causes her to lose an essential part of her identity. She felt initial apprehension about the change upon reading the script, but she now feels it was necessary for Okoye to grow. “We introduced this world and the world received them so well,” Gurira says. “But now it’s our responsibility to allow these characters to be stretched and to go through complex things and for their humanness to really get put through its paces and allowed to open up.”
Like Okoye, all of the women are going through their own internal and external evolutions and transformations as they grieve and continue to defend Wakanda. Still, the void that Boseman’s character left behind can be felt throughout the film as the rest of the characters find their footing. It’s impossible to capture the magic the first film had in its totality without Boseman being present. Ryan Coogler has spoken about his decision to have Shuri be the vehicle to transport the Black Panther story, saying that is what naturally made the most sense for the story and only time will tell how this superhero will unfold.
While the director could have easily recast another male actor to fill the T’Challa role, he instead provided the rest of the women the space and opportunity to be front and center and prove themselves. Shuri, Okoye, Nakia, Ramonda, and Riri, all have such distinct strengths and personalities and it is rare to see a superhero film of this magnitude exist without a man at the center. That choice will perhaps have a deeper and more direct impact on the women and girls of color who see themselves reflected in at least one of these characters, and seeing these actresses carry the torch is the bright spot of the overall somber film.
“The beauty is that we get to play these different women that are so different, but we don’t get to see those sort of variations of women, and especially women of color, on the screen very often,” Gurira adds. “To be a part of seeing all these different women characters come in and do their thing and be so distinct from each other at the same time is something that I don’t know if I’ve really seen that much of in my lifetime, especially on this sort of a platform. I’m just really excited that that gets to be out there and that I get to be a part of it.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in theaters.