Rihanna to return to music with song for Black Panther sequel

Lupita Nyong’o made her dream a reality by filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever when she was able to speak Spanish. The Academy Award winner for 12 Years a Slave was born in México City to Kenyan parents.

There were a lot of questions going into the release of Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” How would the sequel deal with the sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman, the franchise’s leader? Who is going to suit up as the new Black Panther? And do we really need a villain with pointy ears and winged ankles? Thankfully, Ryan Cooger and his fantastic cast have once again delivered a “Black Panther” film that answers all those questions a whole lot more.

Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever got out to a $10.1M start in  17 international box office markets on Wednesday. This is ahead of continued offshore rollout through Friday and the sequel’s domestic debut on Friday (domestic previews start Thursday). 

While it’s unclear whether or not Ryan Coogler is going to return to direct another “Black Panther” film after the release of ‘Wakanda Forever,’ it has long been known the filmmaker is working alongside Marvel Studios to develop spinoffs for Disney+. Originally, it was revealed that the spinoff would be focused on the Dora Milaje, led by Danai Gurira’s Okoye.

There’s no line in ‘Wakanda Forever,’ the sequel to Marvel Studios’ “Black Panther” (2018), as bruising and seething as “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage.” But emotionally, this somber ‘Black Panther’ sequel is just as visceral and lacerating and perhaps just as absolutist. And spiritually, there is great lineage to this bitter resignation about demise, pride, ancestries, the great depths below us, and the refusal to accept enslavement.

In anticipation of its release this coming week, Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever continued its promotional tour with a historic premiere in Lagos, Nigeria on Sunday evening. This was a major event — and the first time a Marvel movie has held a premiere locally — with a large group of talent, filmmakers and press on hand for the black carpet rollout. The sequel to the $1.348B grossing original pic played across multiple screens at Filmhouse Cinemas IMAX Lekki.

Remembering a legend. Two years after, Chadwick Boseman’s unexpected death, filmmaker Ryan Coogler is looking back at their final memories together.

After selecting director David Leitch (“Bullet Train,” “Deadpool 2”) to helm their first “Fast & Furious” spinoff film “Hobbs & Shaw,” Universal Pictures is reuniting with the action-focused filmmaker for a feature film version of the ’80s series “The Fall Guy.” An impressive collection of actors has already been assembled, with Ryan Gosling (“Blade Runner 2049”), Emily Blunt (“Edge of Tomorrow”), and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Bullet Train”) attached to the project.

Marvel’s first mutant, Namor, is finally making his live-action debut in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” next week. Played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, Namor’s inclusion comes after a long journey that includes failed attempts by Universal Pictures to make a solo film back in the 2000s before the character could join the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Imax missed Wall Street’s third-quarter earnings projections due to what it called “a temporary slowdown in the Hollywood pipeline,” but edged revenue estimates thanks to a string of local-language blockbusters.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is almost out in the world. Already seen by critics, including yours truly, the Marvel film is action-packed and fierce, yes.

A day after releasing the audio for “Lift Me Up,” her new song from the soundtrack of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Rihanna has dropped the official music video, and you can watch it above now.The video is a fairly simple thing — Rihanna just went to a beach somewhere and had a camera crew capture her looking emotional against a sunset and twilight sky. It’s interspersed with footage from “Wakanda Forever,” which will of course be its own kind of emotional, since the context both in the story and in the real world is the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman, who died of cancer in 2020.The song is Rihanna’s first solo single since “Lemon” in 2017.Alongside Rihanna’s music, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” stars Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Leticia Wright as Shuri, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross, all returning from “Black Panther.” Tenoch Huerta plays Namor, the king of Talokan, joined by Dominique Thorne as future Ironheart RiRi Williams, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli. Ryan Coogler directed the film, which lands in theaters Nov.

Rihanna, the top-selling digital singles artist of all time, is back to add to that record. Tonight marked the release of the first single from the forthcoming soundtrack to the eagerly awaited film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

It’s been six years since the pop star and now fashion and makeup mogul Rihanna released new music. That changed tonight with the release of “Lift Me Up,” a ballad featured in Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” And, sorry Gaga fans, once you hear it you’ll realize why it’s now the presumptive favorite to take the Best Original Song Oscar.

Back and better than ever! Six years after the release of her last album, Anti, Rihanna’s musical comeback is here.