Black Panther stars visited Chadwick Boseman’s grave to ‘ask for his blessing’ before Wakanda Forever

‘It was really just melancholic to step back into the shoes of it all,’ Winston Duke said

Michaela Coel and Winston Duke visited Chadwick Boseman’s grave to “ask his blessing” before filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Boseman, who played King T’Challa in the original 2018 film, died in 2020 from colon cancer aged 43.

Appearing on the The Graham Norton Show on Friday (4 November), Duke, who plays M’Baku in the Marvel films, spoke about the experience of creating the second film without Boseman.

“It was really just melancholic to step back into the shoes of it all,” he explained. “I was glad to get back with the rest of the cast but Chadwick left this huge gaping hole, which was really hard to fill and you really felt it.

“Visiting his grave to say goodbye formally and ask his blessing was really great to help deal with it because it was such a surprise – none of us knew that he was sick and we were only weeks away from shooting when we heard of his passing.”

He continued: “The movie is deeply about grief and how hard and messy it is, there is no pretty perfect way through it, and you are changed forever by it.”

Coel, who joined the cast for the sequel, added: “For me, visiting the graveside allowed me to not just see Chadwick from a Marvel perspective but to understand this was a friend to this cast and it was a real human loss.”

The highly anticipated sequel to Black Panther has been described as a “powerful” and “beautiful” tribute to Chadwick Boseman as the first reactions to the film rolled in.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is released on Friday 11 November. The Graham Norton Show airs on BBC One on Friday at 10.40 pm.

Additional reporting by Press Association.