The Queen Mother of Wakanda, Angela Bassett, recently discussed the experience of filming the upcoming Marvel sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, especially praising returning director Ryan Coogler for being “a tremendous talent.”
During her appearance on the Kelly Clarkson Show, Bassett talked at length about the upcoming MCU film and how the presence of Coogler made all the difference.
“I really give a lot up to our director and our writer Ryan Coogler. He’s such a tremendous talent and everyone that he brings on that set. Everyone in front of the camera and behind the camera, so impressive, and giving a thousand percent of their gifts. So it’s a beautiful place.”
In the first film, the 9-1-1 actress sported some of the most enviable costumes from the entire MCU, with great care and attention paid to the cultural inspiration behind the designs. The entire set design for Black Panther was beautiful, set in the fictional land of Wakanda, a fictional country in East Africa that escaped the harmful effects of colonization and prospered, becoming a technological wonder thanks to the meteor containing the rare Vibranium that crashed there a long time ago.
The first film served as a cultural touchstone within cinematic history as it was the first big-budget film to feature a black lead superhero with the whole film serving as a celebration of black culture and what it means to its part, not just in America or Africa, but globally. The overall aesthetic of the film was also beyond impressive, something which earned it the Academy Awards for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design in 2019.
The second film looks set to be as visually delightful, if not more than the first one as in a previous chat, Bassett stressed that “it’s gonna be amazing, it’s gonna top one.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released in theatres on November 11, 2022.