Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.Photo: Annette Brown/Marvel
Warning: This post contains spoilers forBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is now playing in theaters.
Angela Bassettsays an importantBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverscene featuring her character Queen Ramonda was cut “to make a surprise for the audience.”
“I filmed a scene. I did, but you know — cutting room, readjusting and reshaping it,” Bassett told the outlet, recalling her character’s words before Namor (Tenoch Huerta) begins an attack on Wakanda. “What does Ramonda say? Oh, ‘Shuri, there’s something that I need to tell you.'”
“I went to Haiti, of course,” Bassett said of the deleted scene, in which her character physically meets Toussaint, who Nakia explains at the end of the movie was intentionally raised away from Wakanda. “I met him, I was introduced to him… but it wound up on the cutting room floor.”
Bassett went on to clarify that the scene was cut “to make it a surprise for the audience and to Shuri” when Wright’s character meets Toussaint during the movie’s mid-credit scene.
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“It was the right way to go,” she told the outlet about the decision. “Perfect to go about it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bassett expressed once more that she was “just mortified” when she learned of Ramonda’s death in theBlack Panthersequel.
“I was not happy about that,” she toldVariety. “I was not pleased. I was so shocked. I was… just mortified. You know, it’s like they gave you the greatest gift, and they snatchedit away.”
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“Part of me was like, ‘Okay, don’t say anything, be strong.’ Then the other part of me was like… ‘I just got to let [directorRyan Coogler] know. That I don’t like this at all — and why? — and don’t do this,’ " she said.
“The love for Ramonda was so real and heartfelt, but you know — they always kill the heart and soul,” Bassett added of the character’s death.
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“I objected. I was like, ‘Ryan, what are you doing? Why? You will rue the day! You will rue the demise of [Ramonda]. People are gonna be so upset,’ " she said. “He was like, ‘Angela, I know, I know, but look, to die is not really to die in this world. It doesn’t really have to mean that.’ "
About possibly returning in future Marvel movies, she added, “All kinds of crazy things happen.”
source: people.com
