Martin Freeman is offering some insight into the upcoming Black Panthersequel, Wakanda Forever. The 49-year-old British actor played CIA agent Everett K. Ross in the 2018 film and revealed that he will be back for the highly anticipated sequel.
Freeman appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Tuesday where he joked that he could share “nothing” about the plot to the film. Fans are very curious as to how the MCU will tackle the story following the tragic 2020 death of star Chadwick Boseman, who played King T’Challa, a.k.a. Black Panther. The MCU has already confirmed they do not intend to recast the iconic role.
“I had a Zoom call with Ryan Coogler, the director and co-writer about seven or eight weeks ago, I suppose,” Freeman shared. “He sort of meticulously took me through all of my character’s beats in the film. He took me through the film, but incorporating my character’s beats.”
Though Freeman didn’t share any plot points, he did share his reaction to the storylines.
“Some of it was very odd, and I think [Coogler] could see from the reaction on my face to some of the things he was saying,” he said, laughing. “He kept sort of stopping, and he kept going, ‘Stay with me, but this is going to work.'”
Though the cast hasn’t filmed the project yet, Freeman is hopeful that the sequel will live up to the hype.
“I mean, we’ve not done it yet, who knows, we might make it awful, but I’m hoping we won’t,” he said. “I hope people will be in for a treat.”
Calling Boseman’s death at the age of 43 after a secret battle with stage four colon cancer “appalling,” Freeman added, “Obviously the hope is we do the first film justice and we do Chadwick’s legacy on it justice and make hopefully another good film.”
Marvel recently announced that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to hit theaters on July 8, 2022.
Michael B. Jordan, who played the villainous Erik Killmonger in the first film, told ET earlier this month that he’d be open to returning, despite his character’s perceived death.
“There’s always a love I have for those characters and Erik is definitely one of those that means a lot to me,” he told ET. “So only if it’s the right thing and it’s impactful and if I could add something to it. If it means something then, yeah, I wanna be a part of that journey.”
