Production designer Hannah Beachler breaks down the sequels most meaningful new sets.
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Not everyones is 550 pages, though, nor does it help themwinan Academy Award.
For the sequel,Wakanda Forever,Beachlers work doubled.
The sets were designed and constructed to emphasize practical effects, like the movies use of underwater filming.
Here, Beachler breaks down four key locations.
And, yes, her bible was once again a mammoth.
The Mural
Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular Black Panther, died in August 2020.
A large mural of King TChalla now overlooks the heart of his kingdom.
And I didnt think it would be different for any Wakandan to lose their panther-in-chief.
We did about 50 mock-ups of what it could be, different ways that Chadwick looked.
And Ryan sent me a text: Its this picture of him.
Brandon had one day to paint it, and he did it in the rain.
We took plastic sheeting over the buildings second story, and he was in a Condor crane.
I had written in Wakandan script, The Panther King Forever Lives In Us And Rests With the Ancestors.
Brandon did such a beautiful job with it.
The 3-D printed buildings inside of that window are Kirbys original designs of Wakanda inFantastic Four No.
When Ryan first saw the mural, you could see that it I dont think anybody was expecting it.
None of the actors really knew we were doing that.
The emotion that first day filming there was really heavy.
Those are real tears that people are crying.
There was also this resounding celebration of a life: the fictional life and the real life.
We later took it down and sent it to Disney; Im not sure what will become of it.
We worked with a lot of consultants on the ways that people grieve in different African countries.
We found not just grief but celebration and singing.
Ive lived in New Orleans for 20 years, and I said to Ryan, Weve got jazz funerals.
I used a lot of history from the Meatpacking District in New York City.
All of those things feed into the design.
We decided thatDanai Guriras character,Okoye, lived there.
Before I started designing, I thought,Oh yeah, Danais from Zimbabwe.
I wanted her to come onto the set and feel that.
We built her whole house.
When she arrived, she grabbed me and we just cried.
Ryans like, Okay, we need to shoot this scene.
Are you done talking?
Are you done catching up?
No, were not.
Everything is a story.
In the memorabilia room, you see Namor painting.
Its six murals, along with all of the hieroglyphs.
There is a lot of spiritual ritual in Maya, including bringing forth your spirit animal.
We wanted to realistically put them about 12,000 feet down.
That then steered us to the biology that exists that deep.
Are we saying this is kind of a Golden City, and theres more?
Ryan really wanted to leave that open.
Once we got them there, I charted over 300 years of the evolution of their architecture.
What are they using thats around them?
What rocks and fish are available?
And what kind of relationships do they have to ocean and animal life?
Theyre holding on to whales to ride them.
We didnt want to put saddles on them because thats not who they were; its more symbiotic.
And what does vibranium do underwater as opposed to what it does on land?
We really thought about those things.
The Megalodon jaw goes back to Chaac.
We were like,Namors got to have a throne chair.
I said to Ryan, How strong is he?
Is he Hulk strong?
Could he fight a Megalodon?
He was 6 years old, standing inside one of those.
How are we gonna do that?
Im like, We can do it.
We can do anything!
Then we really went in and started to detail that.
On the side this jade tooth bites is carved in Talokanil.
Its one hieroglyph, and its all over that beautiful, 15-by-10-foot wide jaw.
Each tooth was 3-D printed and then it was painted to look like jade.
We could not have our Namor come into just a blue environment.
Not on this grand, beautiful scale.
They were usually only something noblemen or people of more status would have.
It was ginormous and very detailed.
Theres a story in the hieroglyphs behind him, on the higher cliffs, and all over.
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