01x14 - The Making of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

[bunniefuu]

[ALL YELLING INDISTINCTLY]

RYAN COOGLER:
We brought something for you guys today.

[CROWD CHEERING]

You guys are gonna be the first
audience to see...

the trailer for
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

[CROWD CHEERING]

WOMAN: Oh, my God.
MAN: Wow!

WOMAN: [SINGING] No woman, no cry

No woman, no cry...

Hey. What are you doing?

-MAN: Checking you out.
-No, no, there's no...

There's no behind the scenes.

[CHUCKLES]

There are no, you're spoiling everything.

COOGLER: Chad is no longer
with us, physically.

[CHANTING IN OTHER LANGUAGE]

COOGLER: But his spirit, his passion,
his genius, his pride and his culture,

and the impact
that he made on this industry

will be felt forever.

[ALL YELLING]

Standing here with y'all,

I promise you
I can feel his hand on me right now.

MAN: Rolling.

[BELL RINGS]

All right.

There is a lot of grief
and pain in this film,

that resonates in a way that sadly
is connected to a reality.

Chad, of course,
the understanding of what it meant

to really show
a world like this, it came from him,

like, him and John Kani,

who played his father,
who is an iconic South African actor.

You know, they came together
during Captain America and said,

you know, let's put Xhosa
in this film right here and now.

They set that precedent

that said, you know,
we're gonna use this very beautiful

and specific African language,
and it will become the Wakandan language.

[SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE]

[SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE]

That set the precedent
for the world of Wakanda.

[PEOPLE SINGING IN XHOSA]

[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

LUPITA NYONG'O:
The first Black Panther film

so much of Africa was being celebrated,
rather than exploited, you know?

Which is something we're more used to.

And it was giving credit
where credit was due

and people were
so excited to see themselves.

And there was an embracing of culture,
of ethnicity.

There was just like, a reminder
that we all come from very rich histories.

-My King!
-Stop it, stop it.

[CHUCKLES]

WINSTON DUKE: While sh**ting
the first Black Panther movie,

we became more than
just actors and collaborators.

We really became friends
along the way.

The entire cast.

We became very, very close

and we all suffered an incredible loss
when we lost Chadwick.

-You have to keep working.
-My goodness.

-Bad news, you have to keep working.
-Goodness.

[LAUGHS]

Oh, man.

I mean, you don't
get past a loss like this.

It's something
you learn how to live with, I think.

For me, it was about realizing
how blessed and lucky I was

to have had the opportunity
to work with Chadwick before he passed.

He wrote a statement saying

playing T'Challa
was the honor of his life.

I was moved by knowing
our time together meant something to him

because it definitely
meant something to me.

And it was kinda, I was like,
"We gotta keep going.

"We gotta find a way to do it with
the people who he cared so much about."

A sense like...

COOGLER: Yeah, I think,
I think how I see this is...

Yeah.

You don't use
combustion technology in practice.

-Yeah.
-You understand it.

It was an interesting exercise for me

'cause it wasn't
my first time making a sequel.

Because I had done that with Creed before,

which was like a spiritual sequel
and like a proper sequel

to the Rocky films and...

But I never like,
made a sequel to something that I made.

I mean, if it stays on their head,

just one rotation,
I think, will be enough.

Yeah, it keeps them in...

-It focuses, just not that fast.
-WOMAN: Yeah.

Like, half that speed, I guess.

One of the questions
we would ask ourselves

when we were
in the early Blue Skies phase,

what is a Black Panther movie?
Like, what is...

Like, we know what Black Panther is,

but what makes it
a Black Panther movie?

If we're to do another,
would it fit into the world?

How would audiences recognize it?

We mourn the loss of our king.

But do not think for a second
that Wakanda has lost her ability...

to protect our resources.

COOGLER: Cut. Nice work.

MAN: Cutting.
COOGLER: Hey, guys, stop real quick.

MAN: Yes, sir.

I just wanna say thanks
to everybody for a helluva first day.

sh*t a beautiful scene.

[ALL APPLAUDING]

It means a lot to be back at work.

Specially on this one.

We gotta honor our good,
good friend and collaborator.

Fellow artist.

And it feels like
we off to an amazing start.

I wanna say thank you
to you guys for today,

thanks in advance for
the other 90-some-odd days we got to go.

[ALL LAUGHING]

Just a big thank you,
thank you to you guys.

[ALL APPLAUDING]

LETITIA WRIGHT:
The themes are pretty strong here.

You see the themes of family,

of protection, of love, of care.

All in one place and I think
that's beautiful for us to explore

'cause many are feeling that

especially with
the years that we've just had.

You know, so many lost.

We can use this film to show people like,

"Hey, we feel
what you're feeling, you know,

"we can connect to that, we can relate."

And hopefully that gives people an avenue

to express how they feel
and just come to terms with that,

so there's so much
that's happening in this movie.

It's beautiful, really.

For me, Wakanda is a symbol of home.

It's a symbol of belonging.

It's a symbol of community.

And the identity of community

and how we hold on
to each other to move forward.

And now, in the second film,
there's been an expansion

to the world of Wakanda,
that's been fun.

For those of us from Wakanda to be like,

"This is what this neighborhood
looks like, that's dope," you know.

And to learn more
about this incredible nation.

HANNAH BEACHLER:
These are ginormous sets.

I've been very excited
about building everything.

We've got Little Rivertown,

which wasn't seen last time.

Based on the River Tribe
and their color is green.

We wanted to bring that in,

but we also wanted
to bring in some other beautiful colors

that you would see in textiles.

So there's a real big variety
in the color usage this time

that I'm super excited about.

You also get to see a little bit more
of our capital city, Golden City.

Think of Golden City like Manhattan,

where you have the culmination of all
the different districts in that one place.

So there's a lot of different tribes

that live in Golden City
as it's their capital.

[ALL LAUGHING]

The only tribe you won't find
living in Golden City is Jabari.

They are separate
from the rest of Wakanda,

so they live in this sort of,
southern snowy mountain tops.

North Triangle is where
Bashenga first put his sword down

so it is oldest place
in all of Wakanda, including the capital.

It is also where Okoye lives.

And a lot of the design in North Triangle
is based on Danai Gurira,

our fabulous actress as Okoye,

her actual country of Zimbabwe,

and she is from
the tribe of the Shona people.

[SPEAKS OTHER LANGUAGE]

It's where Okoye feels
most at home because of the tradition,

because of what it represents.

I was losing my mind
by some of these portrayals,

of various cultures, including my own.

I grew up in a country that had recently

come out of colonization
when I moved there.

And so, to understand
a nation like Wakanda existing,

I understood how special it was.

A nation that left you with that question,

"Who would we have been as a continent
had we never been colonized?"

RUTH CARTER:
Wakanda itself is such a concept

that we really wanted
to come back to it and groom it.

You see technology that's upgraded,
you see new armor.

[SPEAKING OTHER LANGUAGE]

When we do finally see this costume
as Midnight Angel,

it connects directly to the comics.

The Midnight Angels in the comics
are tones of blue.

So, the design ideas
came directly from the comics

and also connect
directly with the actor and the story.

[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

Ruth will exhaust every possibility

in terms of her research,

in terms of connecting
with other artists around the world,

to build this world of Wakanda.

To walk into the warehouse,

and just see row
after row after row, rack after rack,

table after table of jewelry and fabrics

and costumes that she sourced
from Africa, from around the world.

It's just absolutely, absolutely amazing.

It has always been our policy...

to never trade vibranium
under any circumstance.

Not because of the dangerous potential
of vibranium...

but because of
the dangerous potential of you.

I know so much more who I am
when I put the costumes on.

The embroidery,
the jewelry within the fabric,

the capes, the headdress,

she just took it up a notch

and I felt so regal
in each and every costume.

Ruth Carter obviously
brought tears to everybody's eyes

with like, the beautiful costumes.

I always say like,
Ryan's the smartest man alive

being surrounded by
a lot of women. [CHUCKLES]

Women department heads

and every woman on this show,
there's a strength that...

you don't often see,
there's a level of excellence.

CARTER: We had to develop
a brand new m*llitary faction

that wasn't seen
in the first film, which was the navy.

I wanted to get
a color story first and foremost.

We know that the River Tribe is green.

So we started with a palette of green.

You can combine
all different types of green together

and it just seems
to work together really nicely.

Also, the element
of bringing in a tribal reference.

We really wanted to give them
a sense of Wakandan royalty as well

so we brought in the gold
and the silver as an accent color.

And they have hats
like all m*llitary factions of Wakanda,

but it's different
and unique to them at the same time.

This better not be a part of your ritual.

It isn't.

I remember talking about Namor

being in Black Panther 2
while writing the first movie.

He's always been at the top of mind.

In the comics,
the two worlds have a great rivalry.

Namor and Atlantis are

some of the oldest characters
in Marvel publishing.

Namor was one
of the first superheroes, frankly.

But, for us
to introduce Namor into the MCU,

there needed to be something
that grounded it in a reality

that felt like, as tactile as hopefully,
the world of Wakanda feels.

And in talking with Ryan, figuring out
how to bring this character to life,

one thing we thought
was really interesting

was viewing Namor through the lens
of Mesoamerican culture.

In preparation, we knew the film would be

about Wakandans
coming in contact with another place.

Mesoamerica was something
I was thinking about a bit.

And upon research,

it became more clear
that the people of the Yucatán

made a ton of sense.

We would see images of them
drawing themselves with blue paint on,

that was the color that we wanted
from Marvel comics that inspired the film

and the more we got into it,
we realized it was meant to be.

JOEL HARLOW: This is our background area
for doing the Talokanil.

These are the gills.
They were grown digitally

in the computer, sculpted,
then grown, we grew the mold.

And then mass produced that mold
so we could knock out a lot of 'em.

These also have to go in water,
so they've to be very durable.

Now he's gonna go over to get painted.
His whole body will be painted blue.

And then he'll come back to me
and I'll finish him up.

He also goes to hair, and costumes.

Each warrior has their own fish or mammal

that's signature to their look.

Attuma has the hammerhead shark.

The other warriors,
some of their costumes use

what appear to be shells and stones
and whale skin, fish skin.

They have
their traditional Maya earspools.

The costume really does feel like

this is something
that has been tooled over time.

The way we went about making
the first movie was with as much respect

for the cultures we were pulling from
and for the audience.

So we wanted to do the same thing

for the cultures
we were reflecting in this.

Black Panther 1 for us was a big impact.

Everybody can identify with that story.

We suffer because of the racism,
and social cancers.

Black Panther, it was like,

"Oh, my God, there is nothing
wrong in us."

There is nothing bad,
you know, we are not broken.

So, it was, important
and now it's our turn.

COLE: The Mayans are...

There's so much mystery
around their civilization.

COOGLER: Action.

COLE: There's so much
fertile terrain there to explore,

their artwork
and their advanced agriculture.

All of these things
that they accomplished,

it just was a perfect palette
for us to kind of, delve into.

COOGLER: With Namor, we knew early on,

I was like,
"We gotta find out how he got this name."

'Cause in the comics,
the explanation for his name was simple.

His story goes,
they took "Roman" and spelt it backwards.

That's not gonna work
with what we're doing here.

I had the thought,
somebody said something to him in Spanish

and kind of curses him in a way.

That's how he got his name.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

MAN: On my mark in three, two, one.

COOGLER: When our collaborators
came up with the idea

of sin amor which means no love.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

His enemies were calling him that.
That's how we came up with it.

[SPEAKING SPANISH]

[MAN SPEAKING SPANISH]

The child without love.

Namor's costumes
reflect the tradition that he honors

and a lot of researching went into that.

His shoulder mantle
and headpiece that he wears on the throne

is curated from
post-Yucatec Mayan culture.

It's the snake and we used a lot of kelp

and things to make the whole headdress
and handwove his cape.

but we kept it pure
to what he looked like in the comics.

The elements for me,

sort of the makeup effects
elements, are his ears,

I did a couple of iterations of those,

and then we did a septum piercing on him.

He's got earrings
that the costume department provided,

but finding his look
on our actor was pretty easy actually.

He embodies so much
of what I had read Namor to be,

that you don't want to cover him up
with fake eyebrows and stuff like that,

I mean, he's got enough eyebrow there
that I can give him a slight point,

but he's got
great ears for ear prosthetics,

which was, you know, that was a gift.

That was a bonus.

The fish man.

DUKE: What's great about Tenoch is that...

like any great actor,
in my opinion, he loves to play.

He enters the scene with an open mind

and ready to play and try things.

COOGLER: Action.

He carries a lot of gravitas
which the character has,

but he has a lot
of softness and potential warmth

which creates a really great dynamic.

For me, to be part of this world,
with all the respect, it's a dream.

[BOTH GRUNTING]

-Cut.
-Clean. Good job.

HUERTA: I never imagined
to be here playing this character.

And I have the best allies
around me including Mabel.

MABEL CADENA: It was amazing experience,

I have to learn Maya for the movie

because Namora
only speak Maya in the movie.

[SPEAKING MAYA]

That was interesting challenge.
It's really hard.

[SPEAKING MAYA]

[GRUNTS]

CADENA: It's really difficult
but because we have a lot of time,

a lot of months with our coach

for pronunciation
and for memorize the line.

But the big goal was on set

because sometimes Ryan,
he needed change the lines,

and that was a big challenge

because you need
learn at the moment a new line.

It's a really, really achievement for us

in that moment, learn a new word in Maya.

Líik'ik Talokan!

Líik'ik Talokan!

BEACHLER: When you look at Talokan,

we kind of took inspiration
from the temples that you see,

we worked with an archaeologist

and he's written books in Mayan
and he really helped us along

with how to get to where
we needed to be as far as their history.

But also, being reminded that...

Namor never actually
lived during those times, right?

He never lived in Maya
during its glory years

'cause he wasn't born
until they went into the water.

So everything that's there,
is based on memory.

So that's why
things are just a little askewed

because he's remembering
what he's been told

and then what he saw
before everything went into ruins.

This is what's underneath El Castillo.

-Right.
-Which is K'uk'ulkan.

COOGLER: How did y'all model the...

-Stalactites is up, right?
-Up.

-Mites is down.
-Mites is down.

There's over 700 on both sets.

-Jesus.
-Yeah, they hand carved each one

in about three weeks.

-COOGLER: Amazing.
-And then, this is our...

sister cenote to the visitors quarters.

Those are hand carved.

-COOGLER: The big...
-It took like six weeks

to hand carve those ten-foot steles.

And the faces are like,
kind of, after Tenoch's face.

-COOGLER: Yeah, wow.
-Yeah.

Mmm-hmm.

And then, this.

Everything's from Tulum.

COOGLER: Yeah, this one...

This one's my favorite one.

That's my favorite one,

-the panther and Namor.
-Yeah.

In the style of Bonampak.

And the people are really brown.

Which is awesome.

COOGLER: It's pretty incredible, man.

-So much detail in all this stuff.
-BEACHLER: Yeah.

All this is crazy.
How do they plant all this stuff?

They plant this in real dirt?

Yes, so this whole...

-It's all living plants?
-Yes.

And this whole stage is built on dirt.

We cover the ground covering
and then bring in the rocks.

You know, this is deeper
than any of the other tanks,

so they can dive.

WOMAN: Take it away,
five, four, three, two, one.

MAN: Actors go underwater.

COOGLER: I want to go
where the story requires us to go.

There was this quote about how little
we know about the depths of the ocean.

And how, the deeper you get down there,
the more alien things look and seem.

And so for us,
we were talking a lot about this film

being like,
a first contact movie, in a way.

We were talking
about Namor as kinda being...

a little bit of a spaceman,
in a deep ocean as outer space.

MAN: All set, three, two, one, action.

COOGLER: At that point, the movie
took on this specific identity

of having these
water scenes that are super tactile.

MAN: Three, two, one. Turn.

COOGLER: And I knew we needed
to do it for real, as much as we could.

Hello.

MAN: Cut. And surface.

COOGLER: And it made more sense when
things happened that slid our schedule.

We noticed, we're not gonna
have a ton of time for...

to VFX every single water sh*t,

so it would be great
to get in there and do it.

For me, I love
doing everything I can in camera.

And it's really all about lighting.

We had to take into consideration
a lot of things because...

you know, this city

is so deep under water
that there shouldn't be any light.

A lot of what
we're used to seeing, underwater worlds,

people breathing under water,
sometimes these examples can be

over-lit, that look a little fake, right?

Like they're not underwater.

So we had in our t*nk

very soft light above pushing through.

MAN: All right. Camera, set.

ARKAPAW: So that's the believability
factor if you're underwater.

It's like we have this soft,
ambient light that feels real,

not very punchy, not reflective.

MAN: Go.

Everything is against you under water.

Safety's against you, time's against you,
communication's against you.

Moviemaking is hard on dry land,

and you get under water,

the difficulty factor
gets amplified by a factor of a 100.

WOMAN: Great, and charts.

DENISON: One issue we encountered was

a lot of the cast
wasn't comfortable swimming.

MAN 1: Five seconds, roll camera.

MAN 2: Rolling.

WRIGHT: I struggled with it.

Ryan called me and he was like,
"Tish, can you swim?"

I was like...

"Sir, sir, I'm in the lab.

"What more do you need
from me coming out of that lab?"

So I had to learn to swim very quickly,

and everybody
was in a corner learning to swim.

Now I've swam...

in a mediocre manner since I was little.

I used to swim like a puppy,
you know what I mean?

Not anything that anyone wants to film.

I had to become friends with the water.

You have to be so present
when you're dealing with water.

WOMAN: Thirty seconds.

DENISON: Five purges.

[BREATHING DEEPLY]

NYONG'O: You cannot afford stage fright.

WOMAN: Three, two, one.

MAN: Actors going down.

NYONG'O: You can't afford
adrenaline, really.

NYONG'O: You can't afford to hurry.

You actually have to slow
all the way down and focus.

And it was such a great lesson
for performance in general.

COOGLER: The look back's great.

Right. I said... I told...

-How they're coming after...
-COOGLER: Yeah, yeah, totally.

Looks good.

DENISON: Throughout the film, we don't
really see anybody on actual scuba.

Majority of it is free-diving.

You look at Tenoch's character,
Mabel's character,

they have to look, not only competent,
but very comfortable.

Like they were born under water.

We've to get them to a point

where they're comfortable
holding their breath,

they're not thinking
about holding their breath,

but thinking about acting.

And being in the scene.

The free-diving
is so fantastic and peaceful,

when you are down in the t*nk,
everything is silent

and it's like, active meditation in a way,
and I can hold my breath for five minutes.

That's my record.

[SPEAKING SPANISH, CHUCKLES]

DENISON: Mabel is the single best
free dive student I've ever had

and I've taught lots how to breath-hold.

We could push her to 10-minute range
if we had another week with her.

What's interesting
about Namor and the Talokanil

is they're actually
kind of, super soldiers in water

so they're going
to want to move through water

in a way that
the human body probably can't.

There needs to be an interesting marriage

with the stuff
we sh**t underwater, wet for wet.

MAN: Cut.

And some stuff
we sh**t out of water, dry for wet.

Because they're stronger and faster
swimmers than any human on the planet.

So there was a lot of figuring out to do

between the different ways
that Wakandans move through water

versus the Talokanil.

There's a lot of kind of,
math and geometry being done constantly

to make sure that those two different
groups of people are moving differently.

But there's an internal logic
to how everybody moves.

ARKAPAW: When we did
our dry for wet,

we were always trying to keep true
to how light works in the t*nk.

Since a lot of wet for wet stuff
was sh*t first, we had a reference.

So, trying to make it look more real
is kind of making sure that

the rules, the scientific rules of light,

stay true to when
you're sh**ting it underwater.

You want these to maybe push a little bit?

COOGLER: Yes, I do.

-Kind of step out...
-Okay, man.

One of the most difficult elements
of this film was the exosuits.

It's a submarine that you wear,
with the arms and legs.

They make 'em
for utility work under water.

Each suit is about
a million and a half dollars.

People don't realize that was wet for wet.

Those were the actual suits.

And using the exosuits in the t*nk
was an incredible opportunity to learn.

But it was a massive challenge.

MAN: If we can try to see past it
through the vibranium detector.

DENISON: We had to all kind of,
become experts in them overnight.

Worst thing that
could happen is the suit breaks,

they go, "No, the scariest thing
is a fire inside of the suit."

It's pretty frightening.

We don't want that.

So we had to develop,
just like we do for all stunts,

a safety plan for how the suits work.

But it was pretty phenomenal,
the end result.

This is practical moviemaking
at its finest,

which, in the age of VFX,
is a very cool thing to see, right?

MAN: Alex, you ready?

All right, here we go. Ready?

And, action.

-You okay?
-I moved my head.

I was intimidated. I'm not gonna lie.

You know, I've seen Danai
on TV for years, you know.

The Walking Dead.

So, meeting her, it was like...

"Hi, how you doing, I'm Alex." [CHUCKLES]

But she's been great, you know.

She's the one that I worked with the most.

And she's been the most amazing person

in the sense of...

This is my first time in the MCU

or doing something this big
and that fight on the bridge...

[ALL GRUNTING]

You get goosebumps.

When I first started
and I actually saw the video

the stunt guys made for our fight,

I was intimidated.

I was like, "Man, I look so good."

Why should I mess it up? [CHUCKLES]

So it was a lot of training
for a long time, for a lot of weeks.

When I started,
it was like I had two left feet.

I couldn't move
as well as they did, but through time,

I... I got it.

You know,
I started dancing, as they call it.

[GRUNTING]

[EXCLAIMS AND BREATHES HEAVILY]

Something that was very important

was to highlight what Danai
could actually do as Okoye.

Because I think it's important
to capture her on screen, you know?

We could always go to a double,
it's not... That's easy, right?

But Danai put in a lot of work.

And I think actors are different
than your average stunt performer

because a stunt performer
will try to definitely...

Not all of them,
but they will try to do everything

physically with more grit,

but an actor thinks
about the emotion behind it.

COOGLER: Cut. cut.
MAN: Cut it, cut it.

Let's do one more, I'm sorry.

MAN: Reset.

Don't you think like she should get
right next to camera

-So I can come in faster?
-COOGLER: Yeah.

TONEY: There's more weight,
and so when that translates,

you get something very special.

GURIRA: In Okoye's mind,
there's no one who's gonna top her

in regards to combat.

Doesn't matter what their size is,

it doesn't matter
what their musculature is.

It's like I'm too skilled to be taken down

by y'all who just came off
of a k*ller whale's back.

Cute, but let me just get to work.

So that's how she thinks, you know.

Take another step closer...

and I will k*ll you all.

[GRUNTS]

[GROANS]

I really wanted
to make Attuma just bigger

than everybody else physically,
to create that intimidating size.

So, yeah, a lot of working out
and a lot of eating,

I was eating like, every ten seconds.

You know, I was consuming
about 6,000 calories a day

and I gained 30 pounds.

They're gonna see Attuma be large,
look intimidating, but be swift.

[BOTH GRUNTING]

Danai is gonna be different.

[BOTH GRUNTING]

She has to be extremely tactical
about how she att*cks,

because this guy is extremely powerful.

So you're gonna see her calculating.

[BOTH GRUNTING]

You're gonna see her...

[GRUNTS]

rarely on the ropes,

but you're gonna see
a little vulnerability here.

[GRUNTS]

She's never faced anyone like this before.

[GRUNTS]

[GRUNTS]

With Okoye, what I was deeply attracted to

was, from the jump, Ryan was very clear
about how he wanted her to be.

And then, kinda going like this.

GURIRA: And the way,
the idea of her being a general

the idea of the Dora Milaje

and then,
the traditionalism of who she was

was definitely something that
really helped me anchor her.

'Cause her connection to her country
was so, so passionate.

This is a woman
who actually really enjoys her life.

And she loves
being a Wakandan more than anything.

But you know, when you're being told
you can't be a soldier anymore,

and that's all you've been
that's all you know,

that's definitely... a dark corridor.

But that's the arc she has to take.

She never thought she'd
do anything but die for Wakanda,

you know, in that uniform.

But when that's taken off,
now who are you?

And that's what she has to find

and that's what she... ultimately finds
with the Midnight Angels.

I'm excited about
the cultures celebrated in this film,

I'm excited about the new characters
that will be introduced to the world.

Especially to see
how Dominique's portrayal of Riri

come alive, it's so beautiful because...

Riri is now in Africa

and Riri is now
a reflection of T'Challa's decision.

She is a result
of T'Challa's decision in saying

we're gonna open our borders,
we're gonna help.

We must find a way...

to look after one another...

as if we were one, single tribe.

When we were making the first film,

one of the things
that we kept talking about

is that, yes,
Wakandan is extremely African, right?

But, in terms of their mentality,

because they are,
"on top of the world,"

they are only concerned with themselves.

And in a sense,
that's a reflection of America.

I believe I speak for
all the member states here...

when I say that I am deeply
disappointed in Wakanda's failure.

So, in our narrative, Wakanda is that.

And what Riri does for us

is open up Wakanda
for us to be able to relate

and for other people
to be able to see other perspectives.

Riri, I love all that she represents

and Dominique herself
is extremely impressive.

She's the daughter of immigrants,

first child to go to college
in her whole family,

she just graduated
from Cornell herself in the sciences,

and she's playing this role,
I think that's so cool,

like, it gets me teary-eyed.

Hey.

The poetry of it is
that's actually who's playing it.

You forgot to Venmo me.

It slipped my mind.
It's eight hundred, right?

Eight hundred was yesterday's price.
It's a band today.

My name is Dominique Thorne.

Dominique auditioned
for Shuri for the first movie.

The particles absorb the kinetic energy

and hold it in place for redistribution.

And we really liked her
and we thought she was smart

and she has a great presence
and she is funny

and she has a lot of attitude
but we remembered that audition.

Old tech. Functional, but old.

Oh! People are sh**ting at me.
Wait, guys, let me put on my helmet.

And so when we decided to put
Riri Williams into Wakanda Forever,

she was the first and only call.

DUKE: This is her foray
into coming into something

that felt really established
and like, we all had our own relationships

and she came in strong,
holding her own, very prepared,

and just willing to go toe to toe
with everyone and that's her character.

Yo, we got him.

It felt like stepping into a family,
stepping into someone's home.

Please show Miss Williams
where she's working.

WOMAN: Right this way.

And wanting to enter in
with the utmost respect

and reverence for what it is
and what they've done.

But it was also exciting
because sort of, Riri's presence there

along with these new characters
meant that there was more

to be found, more to explore.

It was very, very fun and beautiful

to sort of, go on that ride
with the folks who know the place best.

CARTER: You see that in the story,
Riri builds this machine

that Shuri is very impressed by,

and it flies and it sh**t
and it does all kinds of things.

MAN: Three, two, one and blast.

GRIOT: Oxygen, 0%.

CARTER: And it's also
a very difficult costume to craft.

It's actually, you know, put together

through some mold work but also,
you know, there's metal work there

and it's also a costume
of all kinds of mechanical parts.

And you can imagine the plethora of pieces
that would go into a costume like that.

They were all discussed
over many multiple meetings.

What these cannons do,
what her armpieces do,

how she moves about.

There were so many elements
to that costume that had to be sussed out.

It's such a smart build because

as heavy and as bulky as it is,
all of my joints are free

and so I could step, I could walk,
I could wave, I could squat.

I could do all the things,
but just with this extra weight on.

I think it's probably
most comparable to football gear,

[CHUCKLES] is what a lot of folks
were comparing it to.

And I definitely do feel like,
"Yeah, like, I'm ready for anything now,"

you know,
which is a great feeling. [CHUCKLES]

MAN: On my call, in three,
two, one, action.

MAN: Cut it. Cut, cut.

You all right?

But the Mark II is where we get to see

that sort of, Wakandan flair
sort of, rub off on Riri.

It has a much sleeker design.

There were a lot
of discussions about how closely

it would relate to the Iron Man costume.

And Ryan wanted it to be Chicago Bulls red

and we moved the heart to the side,

but only half
of the costume actually was built.

We built a maquette, which is like a doll,
which was the full size

that they're able
to use with visual effects.

There was a kind of movie magic
that went on with that costume

because it had to perform, you know,
such fantastical things in the air,

and spin and dive and all kinds of stuff

that she would not have
been able to do in a full costume.

Old tech, functional but old.

People are sh**ting at me.
Wait, let me put on my helmet.

For now, tell it to go on.

Once we realized
what the movie was gonna be,

this version of the movie was gonna be,

I realized that it was
a unique opportunity for me as a creative

to have a protagonist just go on
like, a transformative arc.

I'm not my brother.

Namor will beg me for mercy...

and I will stand and watch as he dies.

You know, I was thankful
that Letitia's such an amazing actress,

'cause this is not
the role that she auditioned for.

We were really blessed
in terms of her being that versatile

that she could make you believe
that she was that younger sister

who could have fun, you know,
with T'Challa and rib him,

and feel youthful and like
she was full of love and light.

And then become this character,
which is a totally different thing.

Was the herb not destroyed?

Yes, I recreated it.

With science?

Yes.

MOORE: For us as storytellers,

I think Ramonda's passing was important
in bringing Shuri to her lowest,

and really breaking down this girl
whose spirit seemed unbreakable,

to see what the breaking point might be.

I just buried the last person
who truly knew me.

My heart was buried with her.

It was not a decision we made lightly

because Ramonda's a fantastic character
and Angela Basset is a talented actress

and a part of the family.

Shuri.

Show him...

who you are.

COOGLER: Okay, cut.

MAN: Cut it.

[CREW APPLAUDING]

WRIGHT: I'll be very honest.

When I read that Ramonda
was going to die by the hands of Namor,

I was very upset.

I think I almost cried
on the phone to Ryan.

I was kinda like,
"What are you doing? What is this?"

I'm so sorry about your mom.

BASSETT: I guess it's...

When you take an audience on a journey,
it's like you gotta grab them by the heart

and rip it out of them,
I suppose, but I was...

It took me a moment,

I had to process it,
I had to get over it.

For Ramonda, here's a woman
who has been girded by loss,

who has become a very,
very successful queen of Wakanda,

and has done a great job in defending
her nation from all comers.

And yet, her daughter is suffering from
depression over the loss of her brother

and it's Ramonda's job to try
and pull Shuri out of this place

and let her see that there is the
potential to move forward through loss.

When that illness
took your brother from us...

I had to lead a wounded nation
and a broken world.

But I still took time in the bush.

My most precious resource
is my daughter at this point.

You can imagine
with her husband and her son gone,

that her embrace is that much,
you know, tighter around Shuri.

Physically, emotionally,
mentally, spiritually.

And that's what a mother does,

she does sacrifice
her life for her kids, you know,

and being a mother,
I know this all too well,

we'll do anything for them.

WRIGHT: As we were doing it,

I realized, it did inspire Shuri's arc.

It did really inspire...
that thirst for vengeance

that you'll see when Shuri
takes on the Black Panther mantle.

Very early on,
Ryan explained to me where he was at

and he asked me where I was at.

And he felt really strongly
that Chadwick would want us to continue.

He slowly explained to me
how we can honor Chad in this film,

and how we can honor
what was created by us as a family

and I started to realize
what he was saying.

And it was for me,
like a bittersweet experience

because Shuri does become
the Black Panther in the comic books.

But like, I didn't have
my brother to pass the torch to me.

So...

I had to, kinda like, process that.

And once I felt at peace
that it was the right thing,

I accepted and I said
to Ryan, I'll do my best.

And I made a commitment, I was like,
I'll honor God and I'll honor Chad.

When I put the panther suit on,
it was a surreal moment.

I did feel pretty cool

and they incorporated
a few Shuri elements from the first film.

So Shuri had gauntlets and they kind of,
incorporated those into her suit.

Essentially, we were working
with the design language of

silver being representative of T'Challa,

gold being representative of T'Chaka,

and the little bit of where
Killmonger's coming from.

And Shuri's design, we're essentially
taking those two elements

and combining them.

So that she is taking what works
from each one of those methodologies

and making them intertwine
into her Black Panther suit.

Finding her own voice with the things

My first day in the suit,
I did feel really nervous.

I was like, am I meant
to walk like this, talk like this?

And I just kept hearing
my brother saying like,

"Calm down. It's cool, don't worry.

"And just keep going,
just keep walking and just be confident.

"Just be confident."

MAN: And here it comes,
back at you and... Duck!

COOGLER: And... duck.

Nice. Nice, nice.
Much more like that, okay?

DENISON: When you choreograph
a giant scene like that third act battle,

you read the script,
you're just drinking out of the firehose.

How're we gonna get this action done?

But then you start
breaking it down piece by piece.

What are the main beats?

They come out of the water.

[GRUNTS]

[SPEAKING MAYA]

They climb the side of the ship.

The Dora come off and then you
have to just fine tune things from there.

So, we had these huge days
like, 50 plus performers,

we've got a crane up,
we have warriors coming up,

doing organic falls,
there's lines everywhere.

It gets tough.

Go.

DAVID HUGGHINS:
They have to make sure they're committed.

Once a person commits to the jump,
they've gone beyond the point of return,

they're out there, you can release 'em
bring 'em down at whatever speed you want.

We also have to make sure
that in the choreographing of that scene,

we gotta have people climbing up

in a way that they're
out of the way when they're running down

so they're not hit by accident.

Everybody has to know where they're at.

It's like a dance, everybody needs
to know exactly what step they're on.

Are you ready to bathe in the blood
of Wakanda's enemies?

With some really great training,
it's just the physicality of the Jabari,

where you get to dive
a little bit more into that.

[GRUNTS]

There will be no climbing here.

The fight training was really incredible

and I always try to make
M'Baku feel like a strong man

instead of like, a bodybuilder
or a guy that's about aesthetic.

So, like, he has
a lot of weight culturally on his back.

And he carries it with pride.

And that's a really big part
of what defines the character.

MAN: Follow the chart.

[CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

TONEY: Shuri versus Namor.

We put a lot into that fight.

[SCREAMS]

And it's got a lot of heart and
there's so much weight behind this moment,

because you don't see
a lot of Shuri, you know, in action.

So, when you do, it's gotta be impactful.

Go!

WRIGHT: Yeah, it's a great payoff.

I'm so proud of it.

And Shuri's looking amazing,
Namor's looking amazing.

But something that is
very important to take into account

was that Shuri is smart.

She uses her mind
before she uses her body.

There isn't a lot of flash,
there is more calculation.

[GRUNTS]

With Namor,
when it came to fighting styles,

I pulled from not only sort of,
cultural aspects like Lucha Libre

the sort of ball game that
they go out and play with their bodies,

but also I pulled from Asian cultures.

I pulled from a style called Baji

and Baji is a style
that focusses on grounding your body

while delivering shoulder strikes,

elbow strikes,
so you're gonna see Namor do things

that are unorthodox,

but effective because
he is the person he is.

Namor is more like, yeah,
the fight is not an expl*si*n,

it's little by little,
you know, he's more in control.

TONEY: It was fun to play around
with the wings, you know,

special, sort of like, quick att*cks.

Or him boosting.

But also, they said,
can we rip the wings off?

They grow back, he'll be fine,
but it gives you an opportunity

to humanize this God-like character
and make him come to her.

And so that's
playing to Shuri being smart.

COOGLER: Shuri, look at me.

See your Ma.

Call out to her.

Mother.

COOGLER: It's time to show him.

Time to show him who we are.

Go get him.

Go get him.

Make him pay.

WRIGHT: For Shuri, it's kind of like
a coming of age moment

where she's thinking that,
processing in a way of v*olence.

Wakanda forever!

Processing in a way
of expressing her pain and her fury

towards Namor, she thinks that's gonna
be satisfying to her soul and it's not.

And I think that's
a beautiful way to complete that arc.

To realize that,
wait, my brother wouldn't do this.

You know,
my mother wouldn't want this for me.

And she learns from that
and she becomes a woman,

you know, we see Shuri
become a woman in her own right.

Sometimes life imitates art
and art imitates life.

And I feel that this movie,
the art is imitating life.

DUKE: This is a movie about loss...

and about growth,
and about pain

and the transformation
that happens as a result.

COOGLER: More than anything,

different people
will get different things out of it.

Hopefully you see something in it
and it speaks to you in a way that...

deals with things that you've been

wrestling with
consciously or subconsciously.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's a picture
finish on Miss Angela Basset.

Ryan has such a big heart
and such a great storyteller

and within the storytelling,
what Ryan has done

gives lightness and joy to our sadness.

MAN: Picture wrap of Mr. Winston Duke,
ladies and gentlemen.

-[ALL APPLAUDING]
-We did it, man.

MAN: It's also a picture finish
on Ms. Lupita Nyong'o.

[ALL CHEERING]

COOGLER: After Panther one,
what I was most excited about

was seeing everybody
who I worked on the first one with,

'cause we'd become like family.

And then we lost Chad.

And it kinda changed
everything for this one, you know.

It just became bigger in a way
that was unexpected for all of us.

WRIGHT: Having the support of Ryan,

he just confidently, always would say,
"Hey, Tish, like, you could do this."

And just pushing me forward each day.

You gotta keep inspiring people.

And I'm praying
that that will be the result for Shuri,

that as she's growing and she's evolving,

that later down the line we can be like,

"Wow, that's a great woman,

"that's a great example
to so many people in the world."

COOGLER: From our family to yours,
we just wanna say thank you.

Deeply. Deeply, deeply, deeply,
for taking care of this story,

for taking care of me, taking care of us.

And you guys allowed me to heal,
from something that was really...

[SNIFFLING]

[SOBBING]

From something that was difficult.
So, thank you for that.

Wakanda forever. Líik'ik Talokan.

Love you guys, thank you.

[ALL APPLAUDING]

I think part
of the reason you make this movie

is it changes perspective.

People can see
a superhero in a different light.

A different worldview, and to be
a part of that is a special thing.