Lupita Nyong’o on ‘Black Panther’ co-star Chadwick Boseman death, ‘my world shattered’

Lupita Nyong’o remembered her beloved friend and late actor Chadwick Boseman as she returned of Black Panther franchise for the latest release, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Lupita reprised her role as Nakia in the sequel Wakanda Forever, which has been shot 10 months after Boseman’s death.

Speaking of his absence, the actress detailed the impact of his death on her life, saying, the cast and crew ‘lost family.’

“When he died, my world shattered for a while,” Lupita told news.com.au. “He was a dear friend.”

“It was surreal. It was hard,” Lupita recalled. “It was helpful to be with the main cast who had gone through the same thing. We had all been on the first Black Panther film together and we were all dealing with his loss together on this film.”

Boseman died in 2020, at the age of 43 from colon cancer, a battle he kept private. His death came as a shock for the world. As Marvel character T’Challa, Boseman delivered an empowering performance as a Black superhero.

Lupita continued, “Coming to set was surreal but it was also therapeutic. When he passed, we were in covid lockdown and many of us were isolated when we found out. I was all by myself when I found out. So we never really had the chance to commiserate and grieve together.”

“The experience really taught me why funerals are so important and why that period of gathering to mourn someone’s death is so important. It’s one of the ways you process loss,” she added.

“For us, to get back to ‘Wakanda’, even though it was a delayed venue to be going through our grief, it was the right venue because that was the place where we had formed these bonds with him, so we could come back together in that space and process what we had lost, celebrate the life we got to meet and enjoy,” Lupita added.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in cinemas now.