Letitia Wright, actor who plays Shuri in the MCU movies coyly responded whether she plays the new Black Panther in the upcoming movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The Black Panther sequel film, directed by Ryan Coogler is going to be a major project in the MCU phase IV, in fact it is marked as the end of MCU phase IV.
With the latest teaser drop, we know that this film will focus more on Wakanda’s struggle to sustain and fight against various invasions as their nation mourns the loss of their King T’Challa.
Chadwick Boseman, the actor who plays Black Panther was first introduced back in 2016 in the Captain America: Civil War, and later got his solo movie in 2019 has tragically passed away in 2020 after his battle with cancer.
The movie mourns the death T’challa aka Black Panther also gives the audience a chance to say farewell to the actor himself.
Leitia Wright’s character Shuri has been an important part of the Black Panther story. She also appeared in Avengers: Infinity War helping the team to extract soul stone from Vision, and further briefly in Avengers: Endgame last fight as well.
Apart from Shuri, other major characters who will be returning in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Nakia (Lupita Nayong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and M’Baku (Winston Duke).
Since, the story adapted the tragic loss of Boseman into the plot as losing T’Challa, that means someone needs to take the mantle of Wakand’s iconic hero, Black Panther.
Finally, in a recent interview given to Empire, Wright very coyly responded on whether her character Shuri will become the new Black Panther or not.
Here’s what Shuri said in the interview on this :
“That’s a tricky question to answer. I had a chat about it with Ryan and Chad when we were making Black Panther, and we touched on it briefly. When I realised I was playing Shuri, it was something that I really looked forward to.”
Clearly, she tried to not reveal anything but it was also not a straight no as well, so most likely chances are Shuri will become Black Panther.
Also, her saying that “something that I’m really looking forward to” also gives me hope that she will be looking forward to playing Black Panther character.
Letitia Wright also talked about how the loss of Boseman impacted her, and how she was able to channel her grief into her character Shuri.
Shrui’s onscreen new arc of losing T’challa, her brother “allowed me to grieve, to cry, to laugh and to gain strength”.
Here’s what was her full quote on channeling her grief through Shuri :
Shuri’s journey has allowed me to grieve, to cry, to laugh, and to gain strength that I never thought I could ever have. Trials and tribulations make you who you are. You either fold or you get up and go again. I feel like Shuri kept looking at me every day, asking me if I was gonna fold or go again. And I just kept going until healing started to happen for me.
It is quite apparent how Chadwick Boseman’s loss was also catastrophic for the Black Panther story or his legacy.
Black Panther played by Boseman would have been part of MCU for years, also would have been in Secret Wars but sadly that won’t happen now.
Actors and filmmakers behind this Black Panther sequel film had to scramble to make this film possible without their titular hero in it.
Basically, as mentioned earlier, the plot of the movie mimics the actual situation which is loss of the actor in the film, now translating as loss of Wakanda hero Black Panther aka T’challa leaving the nation mourning, and hence vulnerable for invasions and attacks.
Source: Empire Featured Image Source: Imageantra