Ryan Coogler, director of Marvel Studios‘ Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, shared some of his thoughts on how the film’s themes of death and mourning specifically affected Queen Ramonda.
An excerpt from an interview with Coogler in the new book Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Official Movie Special, shared on Marvel.com, discussed a key relationship at the heart of the movie, the one between Angela Bassett‘s Ramonda and her daughter, Letitia Wright‘s Shuri. “Black Panther was about the struggle to move on after the passing of a father,” Coogler explained. “T’Challa had to reckon with what kind of man he was going to be. This film explores the relationship between Ramonda and Shuri.”
The resonating impact of T’Challa’s death in the MCU
Wakanda Forever, released in November 2022, is the sequel to Black Panther, starring the late Chadwick Boseman. After Boseman’s tragic death, the film’s focus turned to supporting characters from the first movie to show how the loss of King T’Challa/Black Panther rocked his family and his kingdom. Coogler noted, “We know Ramonda’s character as the mom of the king, but in this film she’s the queen of Wakanda, as well as being the mother to her daughter, Shuri. We see what she was going through and her perspective on the loss of T’Challa, which is very different from Shuri’s perspective.”
Other events from the Marvel Cinematic Universe were also relevant to the story of Wakanda Forever. “When the Blip happened, Shuri and T’Challa disappeared, but Ramonda was left,” said Coogler. “Her character has had this really complex emotional experience of losing both her kids, then being reunited with them, and losing one again. She is trying to give Shuri some emotional insight into this.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Official Movie Special is a 96-page deluxe hardcover offering a behind-the-scenes look at the film, available as of today, October 31.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is streaming now on Disney+.
