One Mind Blowing Secret From Every MCU Movie
8. Inspired In Part By Danai Gurira - Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
In Black Panther, everything revolved around Wakanda. The MCU finally opened the doors to T'Challa's home, and had this new part of the world underwhelmed or underdelivered, it's fair to say that the film may not have been as successful as it was. This was a true make-or-break aspect of the movie.
Fortunately, Ryan Coogler and his team knocked it out of the park. Wakanda was built as something of a mosaic made of specific attributes of different African cultures, and the result was something truly spectacular.
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the country was explored even further, with parts previously unseen. One such was North Triangle, the oldest part of Wakanda, in which T'Challa's procession was held. According to Production Designer Hannah Beachler in a film featurette discussing the building of both Wakanda and Talokan, this was inspired by Danai Gurira and her native Zimbabwe.
Gurira, of course, has played Okoye since 2018, and is one of the cornerstones of both the Wakandan characters and the wider cast. She was blown away by this part of the nation in particular, as it took heavy inspiration from Zimbabwe and the Shona people, a feeling that an immeasurable amounts of people will have felt across the entire Black Panther franchise.