The unexpected death of Chadwick Boseman took just about everyone by surprise as the actor had kept his colon cancer diagnosis private. It was naturally expected the Boseman would be reprising his role of T'Challa for the Black Panther sequel, but after his passing, the entire project was briefly up in the air before Marvel Studios confirmed that they would be moving forward.
Production on the sequel, which was recently revealed to be titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, will be kicking off later this year, and Martin Freeman recently dropped a few teases about the film while appearing on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Freeman played CIA operative Everett K. Ross in both Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther, and will be reprising the role for the sequel.
I had a Zoom call with Ryan Coogler, the director and co-writer about seven or eight weeks ago, I suppose. He sort of meticulously took me through all of my character's beats in the film. He took me through the film, but incorporating my character's beats. And some of it was really very odd. And I think [Coogler] could see from the reaction on my face to some of the things he was saying, my face must have been going [shocked face] like that, because he kept sort of stopping, and he kept going, 'Stay with me, but this is going to work.'
Martin Freeman continued: "People are in for, I think, a real treat. I mean we've not done it yet, who knows, we might make it awful. But, I'm hoping we won't, I'm hoping people are going to be in for a treat." The actor added that after the initial shock of Chadwick Boseman's death and assumption that the film wouldn't be happening, Marvel Studios got in contact to say that they would be going on. "Obviously, the hope is we do the first film justice and we do Chadwick's legacy on it justice and make, hopefully, another good film," Freeman said. I certainly don't envy the task that Ryan Coogler and Marvel have in front of them, but if there's a way to successfully continue Boseman's legacy, they're the ones who can pull it off.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is slated for a July 8, 2022 release.
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