Filming ‘Black Panther’ Sequel Without Chadwick Boseman Was ‘Incredibly Difficult’, Says Actor Winston Duke

Before the cast and crew started filming the upcoming movie Sequel to Black Panther., they visited Chadwick Boseman’s resting place to pay tribute to the late actor, who starred in the 2018 film. For Winston Duke, who plays M’Baku in the films, it was an important moment to bond and make sense of Boseman’s death.

“It was just our own chance to say goodbye because it happened so suddenly,” Duke told “CBS Mornings” on Monday. “When all this happened, none of us knew he was even sick.”

Boseman was 43 when he died in August 2020 after a private battle with cancer. In the first film, he played Black Panther T’Challa, the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda.

The sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, serves as a moving tribute to the beloved actor and his character. Duke said it was “incredibly difficult” to work on the film while everyone’s hearts were still heavy. He also addressed the pressure of making a sequel after the huge success of the first film and doing so during a pandemic.

Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther broke box office records when it was released in 2018. The film grossed over $1 billion at the box office, the most by a black director, and became the 14th highest-grossing film of all time.

The sequel, due for release on November 11, is expected to be one of the biggest films of the year, with early reviews calling it one of Marvel’s best.

“This movie is so much,” Duke said. “It’s very sincere. We’re dealing with the legacy of Chadwick Boseman, the loss of Chadwick and the loss of the character of T’Challa, so everyone in the film is dealing with that grief.”

Duke, who is the leader of the Jabari tribe, is known for his humor, which helps ease tension, the actor said.

“M’Baku is almost like a little pressure cooker valve that lets some of the steam out,” he said. “So it makes everybody laugh a little while telling some truths that people aren’t ready to hear.”

Bozeman’s death shocked his fans and many friends as he has not publicly disclosed his cancer diagnosis. Duke recalled the moment he found out about it while driving home from the store.

“My sister called and just said, ‘Are you sitting down?’ ” Duke said. “And she said, ‘Chadwick’s passed.’ And I thought, ‘Who’s Chadwick? Because the Chadwick I know is a young, healthy, lively guy.”

While the cast and crew dealt with the loss while filming the sequel, they had time to grieve when they needed to, Duke said.

“It made a community where everyone understood what you were going through,” he said.

“The thing about the bag is that it washes over you in waves. Any day, for any reason, something can trigger you, and anyone can experience it. So there was a lot of tacit understanding on the set,” he said. said.

Duke also said that going on set while the world is still in a pandemic “feels secondary.” As for the first film’s high bar, he said it’s important to let go of any expectations given how important the first Black Panther film is to the world.

“It was this huge turning point that gave people the opportunity to dream again, to see themselves in the present as big, beautiful and powerful,” he said. “I said, ‘It can’t happen again, it can never happen again, because it can never be the first time again…’ But it can be special, and that’s exactly what it delivers.”