Lupita Nyong'o Can Neither Confirm Nor Deny That She's The New Black Panther

While chatting with The Hollywood Reporter, actress Lupita Nyong’o played coy about if she's the new Black Panther.

Lupita Nyong'o is maintaining secrecy on if she's the new Black Panther. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actress held her tongue when asked if he character, Nakia, would succeed Black Panther in the sequel.

“If I told you that, I might as well just … swim into the ocean and never be seen again," Nyong'o coyly responded.

In August 2020, original King T'Challa/Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman died after battling cancer. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed that although Black Panther director Ryan Coogler had been writing the sequel's script, that it was "much too soon" to recast Boseman's iconic character.

The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And Ryan poured that into the story," Feige told Empire recently.

While speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, N'yongo also shared that Coogler had rewritten the Wakanda Forever script to center the Wakandans mourning after losing Black Panther.

"Every time I thought about what the next Black Panther could be, my imagination fell short,” Nyong’o said. “Even just talking about Black Panther in the midst of still grieving Chadwick, it was really complicated emotionally to do. “Ryan wrote something that so honored the truth of what every one of us was feeling, those of us who knew Chadwick. He created something that could honor that and carry the story forward. By the end, I was weeping.”

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever premieres on November 11.