On Thursday, Marvel Studios will launch an official Black Panther podcast ahead of the November 11 debut of the movie’s anticipated sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Author, journalist and Black Panther comics writer Ta-Nehisi Coates will host the program, which promises to explore “the next chapter in the story of Wakanda and honors the remarkable legacy of Chadwick Boseman.”
The podcast is a collab between Marvel Studios and Proximity Media, which was founded by Black Panther franchise director Ryan Coogler, his wife Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian.
The first episode features a conversation between Coates and Coogler, in which the pair “reflect on the cultural impact of Black Panther, the legacy of Chadwick Boseman and his inspiration to the cast and crew.”
A preview of the show is now available across all major podcast platforms. In the sneak peek, Coogler shares with Coates what it was like to make the film without Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020, and without recasting his role of T’Challa. “My truth is Chad was gone,” he says. “…And for somebody else to be him, we wouldn’t have believed it…No matter how good the actor was.”
The filmmaker continues, “Our truth was loss…Heroes, great men die.”
Producers promise weekly episodes starting in January of 2023, with guests including members of the two films’ crew and cast, including Angela Bassett, who plays Queen Ramonda, and Dominique Thorne, who debuts in Wakanda Forever as Riri Williams. Other guests will include soundtrack composer and producer Ludwig Göransson, Coogler’s co-writer Joe Robert Cole; Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and producer Nate Moore and others.
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