‘Black Panther’ Star Lupita Nyong’o Talks Making Marvel Sequel Without Chadwick Boseman

“It feels spiritually and emotionally correct to do this.”

Just as there have been a myriad of Batmans, Spider-Mans, Hulks and Supermans, it looks like there will be another Black Panther to replace the late, great Chadwick Boseman in Marvel’s upcoming Black Panther II.

Boseman, who shot to fame portraying the Wakanda-ruling superhero, died last August of colon cancer and was posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom that he (controversially) lost to Anthony Hopkins last weekend. 

In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Lupita Nyong’o (herself an Oscar-winner) detailed making Black Panther II without Boseman, saying that it feels “spiritually and emotionally correct to do this”. 

Read her full statement to Yahoo! below:

“People will ask me, ‘Are you excited to go back?’ Excitement isn’t the word. I feel like I’m in a very pensive and meditative state when it comes to Black Panther 2. His passing is still extremely raw for me,” Nyong’o says before her voice starts to crack. “And I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like to step on set and not have him there.

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“But at the same time we have a leader in Ryan, who feels very much like we do, who feels the loss in a very, very real way as well. And his idea, the way which he has reshaped the second movie is so respectful of the loss we’ve all experienced as a cast and as a world.

“So it feels spiritually and emotionally correct to do this. And hopefully, what I do look forward to, is getting back together and honoring what he started with us and holding his light through it. Because he left us a lot of light that we’re still going to be bathing in. I know that for sure.”

Black Panther II is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 8, 2022.