Lupita Nyong'o Says She Might've Grown Up Differently If She'd Seen A Woman As Black Panther

There’s a saying that if you can see it, you can be it — and Lupita Nyong’o says it certainly would’ve helped her if she’d seen a Black woman as Black Panther when she was a kid.

Nyong’o reprises her role as Nakia in the new Marvel movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which sees a woman take up the title as Wakanda’s protector after the death of T'Challa (the late Chadwick Boseman).

Marvel fans have been wondering for months if the new Black Panther will be the warrior Okoye (Danai Gurira), T'Challa's little sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) or his ex Nakia (Nyong'o).

And while there's only one woman who ends up in the suit, Nyong’o says she hopes the new Black Panther does for young girls what Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa did for young boys — especially kids of colour.

“It will be amazing to see what it does for kids today,” Nyong'o told Narcity in a recent interview.

“I can only imagine what it would have done for me. I think it would have made me love the skin I’m in a lot sooner than I learned to do that,” she said.

“I might have been better at science thanks to this film, because I definitely would straight up fall asleep in science class.”

Science definitely plays an important role in the film, both in bringing back the Black Panther and with Riri Williams, the MIT genius who builds her own suit of Iron Man-style armour using Wakandan science.

“I think maybe (seeing this) would have given that side of my brain a shot,” Nyong’o said. “That’s the beauty about stories like this, that they hopefully offer kids more options and … something to aspire to.”

Nyong'o has spoken at length about how devastating it was when Boseman died just before production started on Wakanda Forever. She says director Ryan Coogler ultimately shifted the story to deal with the equally unexpected death of T'Challa.

We asked if there was every any doubt about who would succeed Boseman as the new Black Panther, given that there were so many options.

"I just couldn't imagine how we move forward, period," she said. "Forget about who was donning the suit. It was just like, where do we go from here?"

She says Marvel and Coogler were also struggling for a while, but it was Coogler who ultimately sorted it out.

"He so beautifully figured out a way to be true to himself, true to those that Chadwick loved and to the fanbase, and to carry the story forward," she said. "I was marvelling at how possible it suddenly was."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theatres everywhere on November 11.