Original subtitles

(upbeat music playing)

ROBIN: Tonight, just one week before the opening

of the most anticipated movie of the year,

the stars of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever are here…

Yes!

Wakanda Forever!

ROBIN: …to celebrate and honor the brilliance of Chadwick Boseman

and to pay tribute to the legacy of a king.

When Chadwick passed away, I was broken.

ROBIN: The powerful interview with his wife,

Simone Ledward Boseman.

He was a leader and he was a king.

(dramatic music playing)

ROBIN: Also, we take you inside Wakanda.

We are home.

ROBIN: Hidden in Africa,

a fictional world of science and technology,

with very real traditions,

culture and challenges

and show you how that world expanded

to include a fictional new underwater city

based on the traditions of Mexican culture.

(singing Akekho Umama Ofana Naye)

ROBIN: Feel the iconic rhythms and music of Wakanda,

how hit artists blended today's sounds with sounds of old.

RIHANNA: ♪ Lift me up… ♪

ROBIN: And here tonight…

Oh, man, maybe we bit off more than we can chew.

ROBIN: …for the first time anywhere,

see an exclusive not yet released scene of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

(rock music playing)

(indistinct chatter)

ROBIN: In recent years, a simple two-word phrase and gesture

has taken on a life of its own.

MAN: Wakanda Forever!

Wakanda Forever!

Wakanda Forever.

ROBIN: Sweeping the nation.

Nobody wants to shake my hands anymore. Everybody just does this.

Seeing people gravitate, celebrate is beautiful.

-Action! -Wakanda Forever!

LUPITA: The salute was being done on set.

I was like, "Oh, that's really fly.

That's catchy. That's good."

FREDERICK: It's a statement, right?

You know, it-- I can't even really explain it.

Like, you saw NBA players doing it.

The Saturday Night Live skit.

you know, like, showing people, like, doing it all over the place.

-Hail Wakanda. -Hail Wakanda.

FREDERICK: And it was--it was hilarious.

It's a brilliant stamp that easily gets transferred to real life.

It is right over left.

-Wakanda Forever. -Wakanda Forever.

(tense music playing)

ROBIN: Black Panther was more than just a superhero movie…

-(drums thudding) -(ululates)

ROBIN: …it was a cultural phenomenon.

But making it wasn't always easy,

as Director Ryan Coogler revealed when we sat down together.

It was the hardest thing I'd ever done professionally.

Makin' the first Panther,

it felt like I had been off more than I can chew.

"Imposter syndrome" some people call it.

"I'm not ready yet.

It's too big, it's too much."

But my collaborators all…

would constantly let me know that they trusted me.

ROBIN: When the movie was about to be released in 2018,

the anticipation was palpable.

-CROWD: Lupita! Lupita! -MAN: Can I get one please?

ROBIN: It set a pre-ticket sales record

and we saw the start of the Black Panther Challenge online.

The Black Panther Challenge is actually the largest GoFundMe in history.

I thought about, let's see if I could figure out a way

to help some children see the film.

ROBIN: His idea unleashed waves of joy across classrooms.

(all singing foreign language)

ROBIN: It raised millions

with 70,000 children watching the film for free.

We're inviting all of you guys to come see Black Panther for free.

(cheering)

FREDERICK: I think that this film is a global catalyst

for the imagination of young people.

They can literally be anything, because they see it.

It is life-changing.

This never are gets old.

NNEDI: That moment where they go through that forcefield

and then you see it open up, like, was exhilarating.

I had never seen a love letter to the Black community like that

on a screen in this capacity.

ROBIN: It became one of the top-grossing movies of all time,

earning more than $1.3 billion worldwide.

(indistinct chatter)

It's the first comic-film nominated for best picture for the Oscars.

JAMIL: To see this tale

from about a made-up superhero in a made-up country,

but based wholly in African and African-American realities,

to see the Academy recognize that

wasn't necessarily a step forward for us, it was a step forward for them.

(applause)

And the Oscar goes to…

Black Panther.

ROBIN: It did end up winning three Academy Awards for its score,

costume and production design.

The casts also taking home a Screen Actors Guild Award.

But this massive blockbuster actually had humble origins.

It started with a comic book

that was never expected to amount to anything.

Marvel comics was expanding.

And they decided put the Black Panther in Jungle Action.

And they didn’t think it was gonna survive.

JAMIL: The character was created by Stan Lee

and Jack Herby in 1966.

And of course that's the same year that the Black Power movement emerges.

(crowd cheering)

JAMIL: Civil rights movement, you have the emergence of demands

not simply for Black freedom but for Black power.

All power to the people!

ALL (applauding): All power to the people.

I'm sure Jack and Stan were aware of the Black Panther party.

But I don't know how much that influenced the character.

I know that there's was a concern there.

JAMIL: They changed the name of the comic to Black Leopard

for a brief time before reverting.

So I think there may have been initially some reticence,

you know, about being associated with the Black Panthers

and the concept of Black Power.

But ultimately that is what the comic is about.

DON: I tried to make Wakanda a very separate unique place.

And trying to keep the White people out of there

was-- became a major fight.

Uh, I just wouldn't do it.

T'Challa doesn’t need anybody to come in and help him.

He'll take care of his own problems, thank you very much.

As a fan of the character in publishing,

what always struck me about Black Panther is

he's not an incredibly emotive person even on the page,

but there's a power to him, there's a gravity.

ROBIN: Producer Nate Moore's idea

was to introduce King T'Challa or Black Panther

on the big screen in 2016's Captain America: Civil War

played by Chadwick Boseman.

He shows up. Boom!

And I know now in hindsight, he thought it was a cameo.

But we were interested in doing a stand-alone movie.

FREDERICK: You see the scene.

And bullets are bouncing off of the Black Panther.

People lost it.

In a world where we are protesting

for no bullets to be aimed at a Black person,

to see them bounce off from a police helicopter,

that's something special.

JAMIL: It's not surprising to see that the public would demand

more of that character.

RHODEY: Your Highness.

ROBIN: The public got what they wanted and so much more.

The movie and its ripple effects were felt across the globe,

as I saw in my visit to Ghana.

Talking with Danai Gurira who grew up in Africa

and is a fierceWakandan warrior in the movie.

Why do you feel it had such an impact?

It really is that moment where the world is ready for something

they might not be aware they're ready for.

The world was ready to really take in Africa

in a whole new way.

In a way that shows our specificity, our excellence,

our diversity, our coolness, you know.

You have college courses being taught about Black Panther

and the themes within the film.

It's brilliant.

Sometimes you're allowed to tell stories only within a certain box,

but with Panther, we blew the lid off of that box.

Is this what you wanted?

FREDERICK: It opened the door for Shang-Chi to exist.

It opened a door, in my opinion, for the success of Crazy Rich Asians.

It opened the door for The Woman King.

With Black Panther, it is a phenomenon

in every way: the box office, culturally, critically.

Did you feel pressure, expectations for the second one?

Of course, of course.

Um, I felt humbled to be asked back to do another one, you know.

It's not a guarantee.

But I knew I wanted to do it.

And I have to say the way that you were able to introduce

a new world, new characters.

I started… started to have that familiar feeling of, like, "Oh man,

man, maybe we bit off more than we can chew," you know,

like when we were-- we were developing Talokan.

ROBIN: Not only did he help create the underwater nation of Talokan

for the film Wakanda Forever,

Ryan also brought in a cast of international actors.

When I was a kid in Mexico, I never dreamed of something like this.

Namor is the ruler of Talokan.

This character is based on indigenous cultures,

Mesoamerican cultures, especially Mayan cultures.

One of the biggest messages in this movie is that

it's time to heal the breaks in the heart

and embrace who we are.

This movie changed my own story.

You know, when I start this movie, I didn't even speak English.

And it's beautiful, this Talokan world.

Actually, we heard an indigenous language.

As a Mexican woman with this face

to see myself for the first time in a big screen is like wonderful.

This is probably one of the most diverse casts

that we've seen with this kind of budget.

TEMS: ♪ Ere, little darling don't shed no tear ♪

There's something truly universal about this story.

As we allow this story to touch our hearts.

FREDERICK: I watched the teaser the first time.

I missed Chadwick Boseman immediately.

When Chadwick passed away, I was broken.

And so we all are being invited to experience the story,

and seek the hope we all need.

And hopefully in the process, we've paid tribute to Chadwick,

and we've furthered his legacy.

What do you feel his legacy will be?

It can't be defined to a sentence…

soundbite, or--or--or a film.

(crying)

Forgive me.

No apology necessary.

He had these giant hands, like, uh…

(chuckles, sniffles)

…massive.

And--and-- and that's what I think about with him,

is--is his--is his reach like, across history.

You know, pullin' us up,

pullin' us backwards for--for what we should know.

And, um--and pullin' us forward.

That's--that's what I think his legacy is.

Thank you. Thank you.

-Thank you. -ROBIN: Thank you.

My momma used to say, "I feel him on his heavenly balcony,

going, 'Thank you, carry on, carry on.'"

Thank you.

(dramatic music playing)

You know, we had already introduced

audiences to the world of Wakanda cinematically.

And we wanted to-- to get deeper into Wakanda,

get deeper into the characters.

But at the same time, give audiences that same feelin' of bein' introduced

to something new, to a new place.

KELLEY: In this new film, I think we get more Wakanda.

I mean, we definitely see all of the science tech advances

that every other country, you know, in the world wants to get their hands on.

But we also see the people.

I really became more detailed and focused on their traditions, their culture.

What are some of the things that they are challenged with?

Wakanda Forever represents this nation of Afrofuturism

that really centers the continent of Africa

in the tech space.

Afrofuturism is taking an idea

or the thing that happened and reimagining the sci-fi fiction

behind what would have happened.

You see these young, Black, tech geniuses,

that really are, like, the smartest people on the planet, in this film.

And that's something we've never seen before

in any movie, period.

The STEM, everyone talks about how women are not bright when it comes to that.

And at the forefront, Shuri is there.

Can you tell folks what's--what's new technology…

-Oh, technology wise, what's new? -Yeah, the new inventions and things.

You'll see new vehicles,

you'll see, um, new applied sciences.

You'll see a lotta, uh, robotic engineering,

rocket engineering, nanotechnology.

I mean, you'll see it all.

Bullet wounds don't just magically heal overnight.

(chuckles) They do here.

But not by magic, by technology.

NNEDI: Shuri in the comics,

she has a lot of really mystical powers,

and then the Shuri in the film

is a genius engineer who creates

all of these different technologies for her brother,

but she has her own aspirations too.

Shuri's way of dealing

with what she's going through,

is to bury herself into new technology.

She's always thinking of ways to protect not only her nation,

but those who have to go to fight on behalf of her nation.

There's futurism but there's also a respect

of honoring the past,

so there's a moment when she has to just take Shuri,

let go all of the technology

and we have to just sit

and deal with the experience of life.

Shuri in the--in the first film was a mentee

of her--of her older brother.

And in this film, she gets to play mentor

to another young scientist, and that relationship that--

seein' those two characters kinda bounce ideas off of each other

was, uh, really a blast to direct,

and I'm lookin' forward to people seein' it.

Wakanda planted a seed of what is possible.

We can't go back in time.

However, we can pull from it

some of the strength.

NNEDI: Things don't get done

until you can imagine them first.

That is the role of storytellers.

That is the role of science fiction.

It's about envisioning a future with us in it.

RUTH: We are thinking about how we can move

the African diaspora into the future,

with technology, with science,

with culture with art,

and Afrofuture combines all of that.

We wanted it to be as tangible and real

and evolved as possible,

but still be familiar, right.

We don't want it to be, you know,

100 years in the future and nobody understands what's going on.

Black Panther helped to elevate Afrofuturism

and have us talking about it in louder ways

than probably we were before.

After this movie, Wakanda Forever,

there'll be two discussions coming out.

You're gonna have the continuing discussion of Afrofuturism.

But then you will see the work of other authors

that have talked about Chicano-Chicanafuturism.

There is Latino futurism.

We were being influenced by that.

Seeing two different groups of brown people on screen

in Wakanda Forever is…

colossal.

ROBIN: Across the globe we are seeing

the next generation of storytellers

and visual artists using technology

to tell their stories in a way we've never seen before.

It feels great to know that people have looked at Wakanda

and taken inspiration to create and innovate and discover.

DAVID: Using technology, using software,

using all these new media, allows more artists

to develop, and opens the door to various forms of art

that, especially from Africa and from the diaspora,

are not represented enough.

MICHELLE: As an artist I'm always trying to look

into different ways of telling stories.

You know, the VR technology is kind of like a step forward

into, um, the future.

ROBIN: This big screen inspiration

now leading the way for the next generation of creators.

It was definitely, uh, like a stepping stone for me.

Like maybe one day I could be someone

who's creating things as big as that.

It reminds me of how else people--

these are the only thing we blessed with, the hands.

We need to use them to create possible futures,

to create our own realities,

to create everything that we imagine.

LETITIA: I always want to inspire through my work.

For it to touch people's hearts…

means that we did something right.

ROBIN: Did you ever imagine that you would create

this world that resonates with so many people?

It's beyond my wildest imagination.

I feel like I was blessed to be able

to be in the right place at the right time,

um, to have the ability--

to have the job of adapting Wakanda to the screen.

Never dreamt

that I would ever be a part of something like this.

And I knew the first time

I turned on the Skype

and looked at Ryan's face and we talked,

"This is gonna change everything."

(upbeat music playing)

ROBIN: Before Black Panther was even released in 2018,

the fashion in the film sparked an obsession

all over social media.

The woman who lit the flame?

Creator and legendary costume designer,

Ruth E. Carter.

(chanting)

JAMIL: The scene where T'Challa is first going to face a challenge,

you're seeing all of the different tribes of Wakanda

on the side of this mountain,

it still gives me chills just thinking about it.

I, M'baku,

leader of the Jabari, wish to--

I accept your challenge.

TANISH: She really is the blueprint

for a lot of other Black costume designers.

-MAN: Right here, babe. -(cameras clicking)

ROBIN: For over 30 years,

Carter has designed costumes for such films as Selma…

MAN: What happens when a man stands up, says, "Enough is enough"?

ROBIN: …Amistad…

MAN: I will call into the past and beg my ancestors

to come and help me.

ROBIN: …and Malcolm X.

This is who you are.

Beautiful.

Your beautiful black selves

with pride and dignity.

Ruth E. Carter.

(laughs)

Were you familiar with her work from an early age?

Of course. Oh, yeah. I grew up--I grew up watching--yeah.

I grew up watching her work.

RUTH: Black Panther was a full-circle moment

because making those costumes

required that I pull in everything I have ever done.

(chanting)

ROBIN: Carter worked closely with Coogler to develop the costumes

and it all started with a blanket.

All of our research trips informed us a lot.

My initial trip, I was in South Africa, in Lesotho.

RUTH: When he returned, he remembered these beautiful blankets

that were the indicator of their tribe

and they had been with them for hundreds of years.

Border Tribe.

RUTH: And then we printed Vibranium on one side,

so that they could be used as shields.

ROBIN: The visual style Carter developed

mixes and celebrates traditional and contemporary African design.

TANISHA: She literally scoured the earth for the garments in this film.

She went to various parts of the African continent…

to work with some of the most skilled craftspeople

and also to educate herself on the various ethnic groups

across the African continent.

ROBIN: Marvel had a design for T'challa's Black Panther suit

but Carter put a unique stamp on it.

One of the things that was important to me

was that he have symbols on his suit

that would connect him to Africa.

You see that triangle in so much of the art of Africa

throughout the continent.

And the Oscar goes to…

ROBIN: For her groundbreaking work,

Carter became the first African-American costume designer

to win an Oscar.

Wow.

This has been a long time coming.

Marvel may have created the first Black superhero,

but through costume design we turned him into an African king.

(cheers and applause)

ROBIN: In Wakanda Forever,

we'll see some familiar costumes

but this time, Carter's work is even bigger and bolder.

She really can make you, like, click into place

with the costume she puts you in.

She's a storyteller first.

Take her to the River Province to prepare her for the ceremony.

RUTH: The Dora Milaje,

their costume honors many regions of Africa.

This is Dora Milaje, right here.

There's a harness which is inspired by the Turkana tribe.

Neck rings and arm rings inspired by the Ndebele.

Leather inspired by the Himba tribe of Mali.

ROBIN: Queen Ramonda appears in a series of spectacular

3D printed crowns.

RUTH: She wears this isicholo.

Here is Ramonda's hat from Wakanda.

That is the South African married woman's hat.

They're so resplendent, so regal that they--

they really helped me grasp onto the character.

The headdress is 3D-printed,

very, very, expensive. (laughs)

ROBIN: Carter also faced her greatest challenge yet,

creating costumes for the underwater world of Talokan.

The Talokanil is a imagined world of people

who left the Mayan civilization

and created one in the ocean.

The production, they hired some advisors.

These guys are scholars.

They are Mayans.

They directed us to the pottery

that the Mayans painted,

the hieroglyphics.

TENOCH: They took so long to create this costume

because they have to know exactly what was the meaning of each element.

For example, in the helmet, you know, is the feather serpent.

These costumes change the story for our people.

-it's so amazing for the representation. -Amazing.

We also went to historians and experts

that could tell us about the evolution underwater.

We used fish bones and we used fish fins.

The lionfish fins that Namora wears are very large.

The headpiece is--it's a lot.

You can't swim with the headpiece.

It was heavy. So we have different versions

if I have to move too much under the water.

ROBIN: With stories like these emerging,

the anticipation only grows

to see Carter's wearable art on screen again

and to answer the question…

Who is gonna be donning that majestic, symbolic,

important piece of costume that Chadwick did?

You know, I don't wanna give it away before folks see it,

but what I will say is, um,

the person who ends up putting on, earns it through the film

and, you know, uh, I hope people enjoy it.

Well, speaking of music, it's like a separate character…

-RYAN: Uh-huh. - …in the film.

-RYAN: Yeah. -And Ludwig…

RYAN: We met in school at USC

and I heard him score something for, like, one of my classmates

and it--it blew my mind.

ROBIN: Composer Ludwig Göransson,

the mind behind Black Panther's Grammy and Oscar-winning score.

Its synergy of hip-hop and traditional African beats,

bringing Wakanda to life…

The only way to do that would be to go to Africa

and work with artists and instrumentalists from the continent.

ROBIN: Senegal would be Göransson's first stop.

There, he connected with singer and guitarist Baaba Maal,

who would invite him to watch his tour.

I think it was a good thing to do because by following my band

and how the people organize the concerts that start sometime

at two o'clock in the--the night.

It's very ceremonial.

The women put their jewelries,

their nice clothes, indigos, all the colors.

The energy's crazy.

And he comes out in his traditional clothing

and starts singing this--this opening hymn

and I had, you know, goosebumps all over my body.

ROBIN: Maal's trumpeting vocals

which can be heard from villages miles away

introduce the hidden kingdom on the song "Wakanda".

(singing in Fula)

OKOYE: Sister Nakia,

my prince…

we are home.

LUDWIG: Baaba Maal is singing about

an elephant that's died

and the elephant being a synonym for a king.

When a big elephant die,

it's always a young elephant who will come to lead all the others.

A new king will be chosen,

which is the young T'Challa.

This never gets old.

(epic music playing)

ROBIN: These drumming "Sounds of the King"

played by tama master Massamba Diop.

One of the most fascinating instruments to me was the talking drum.

It's a drum that sounds like a voice that you can actually talk with.

That was the first type of telephone.

And when we came back and come to the studio in Dakar

and to bring all the musicians,

I remember when we was recording the talking drums

with different microphones,

Ludwig was right there in the middle.

We have many Senegalese people all around the world.

When they went to see Black Panther,

they all say, "Wow, this is our culture.

This is what we know."

ROBIN: Göransson's next stop

would be the International Library of African Music

so we had our cameras follow his footsteps.

LUDWIG: It was the biggest collection of recorded African music in the world.

So I went there to be able to listen to

as many different recordings as I could.

And a lot of that music doesn't exist anymore.

ROBIN: The library organized a musical performance

by South African healers

to simulate Göransson's exposure

to traditional African performances that communicate a story.

As they are dancing,

they are breaking the foundations of those prisons.

Their ancestors will be free.

The first song that the Amagqirha sang is Akekho Umama Ofana Naye,

which means "There's no mother like her."

(singing Akekho Umama Ofana Naye)

BAABA: African music, you have to understand it,

like something that calls people to collaborate,

this is what makes African music always in a movement.

(drum beating)

(all chanting)

(speaks Xhosa)

(all speak speaks Xhosa)

MIKE: "All The Stars" is the first song that I think about

when I think about Black Panther.

ROBIN: Afrofuturism takes center stage in Kendrick Lamar's chart-topping album

that he curated for the movie's soundtrack.

That first Black Panther soundtrack went number one on the Billboard Top 200.

Probably because of Kendrick Lamar.

MIKE: Kendrick sits on the cusp of so many intersectionalities

of different stylings of hip hop,

from hip hop music to world music to Afrobeats.

There's something beautiful about what's happening with Afrobeats right now,

you saw people dancing here in the United States to Afrobeats

and you saw people dancing in South Africa to Afrobeats outside of a movie theater.

(crowd cheering)

ROBIN: So how could they follow Black Panther's iconic sound

in Wakanda Forever?

We didn't wanna try to reinvent the wheel,

you know, we didn't wanna try to recapture lightning in a bottle on this one.

So we went into it being more open to having lots of artists

and representation from all over the world.

We had African and Afrobeats and Afro pop represent Wakanda,

and so we needed that Mesoamerican side of music to represent Talokan.

So it was an incredible journey for me to be able to go to Mexico.

Some of the artists I worked with there includes Alemán,

Snow Tha Product,

Vivir, and Mare.

But we still were, holding out hope that we could find like--like--

a marquee artist as thematically relevant as Kendrick was to the first film.

-And who was that? Who was that? -(laughing)

-Who the--who was just a mother. -Uh-huh.

What was it like to write with Rihanna?

-It was incredible. -WOMAN: Rihanna!

NATE: Ryan knew this movie thematically is very much about motherhood,

and mothers and daughters and that relationship.

And Rihanna's very publicly a new mother.

Listen, if anybody is going to get RiRi to give us some more music,

I guess it's Black Panther. (laughing)

RIHANNA: ♪ Lift me up ♪

♪ Hold me down ♪

It was Rihanna's admiration for the world of Wakanda

that inspired her to even want to see a cut of the film.

And we she did, she was excited to get back into the studio.

And her collaboration with Tems, this amazing Nigerian-born artist as well

and Ryan has a writing credit on "Lift Me Up".

We have to experience-- we're going to Lagos

and--where we meet with Tems,

and she recorded No Woman No Cry for us that we used in the trailer.

TEMS: ♪ No woman no cry ♪

What's so special about this is that we recorded over four continents.

Over 2500 hours in the studio…

over 40 different vocalists and artists, a hundred-piece orchestra,

two completely different cultures.

SINGER: ♪ And when I wake up… ♪

WHOOPI: How do you define the legacy of a King?

LETITIA: He is a King.

He is regal and a leader.

And T'challa is fortunate

and blessed to have Chadwick Boseman represent him as a character,

because Chadwick Boseman was everything and more

to showcase T'challa to the world.

He had no excuses when hard work was there to be done,

no excuses.

When you looked at him, you want to stand up straight.

You want to show up earlier, work longer and harder and you refuse

to have any excuses yourself.

KEVIN: Chadwick was the only actor we discussed.

He was the only actor we discussed

because of almost everything we'd seen him in.

42.

NATE: His portrayal of Jackie Robinson was so powerful because of the restraint.

That is something T'challa kind of exhibits.

Right? There's a dignity to him.

King T'challa…

the Black Panther.

LUPITA: He had just a spiritual practice

that made him more than just an actor.

He was very much involved in the advancement of humanity.

And he sought to do that through the roles he played.

Mr. Brock, I'm just a ballplayer.

No, no, no. You tell that

to all the little colored boys playing baseball in Florida today.

To them, you a hero.

ROBIN: Actor Chadwick Boseman being a real life hero

to children's at St. Jude's Hospital struggling with cancer.

-Hi. How are you? -Good.

I love your movie.

WHOOPI: In this Sirius XM interview, Bozeman gets emotional

about terminal patients he was communicating with.

Their parents say they're trying to hold on till this movie comes.

Just to experience those two little boys' anticipation of this movie.

And when I found out that they--

Yeah. It is--it is--it means a lot.

WHOOPI: But he was privately battling the same disease.

We turn now to the tributes pouring in after the death

of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman at just 43 years old.

New details about Chadwick Boseman's private battle with colon cancer.

He got that diagnosis.

It was being treated, all while filming several movies.

WHOOPI: Bozeman's widow Simone is carrying his torch

and now publicly speaking for the first time.

Let me start by saying how good it is to see you.

It's good to see you too.

Carrying this on, I'm sure cannot be easy.

It has been the most challenging two years

I've ever had in my life.

We don't have any children

and we were really faced

-with this question of legacy. -WHOOPI: Right.

We sat down.

He said, "You know, I was thinking about a foundation."

And he said, "For the arts. Will you do that for me?"

-"Of course, I will do anything for you." -Yeah.

And you know, and very, very shortly after that he transitioned.

WHOOPI: Bozeman's alma mater Howard University

named the college of fine arts after him.

It was such a full circle moment because he was able

to go back to Howard for the commencement speech in 2018

and at that time they announced the college was going to be reestablished.

WHOOPI: Bozeman would tell graduates

about adversity he faced early in his career.

Playing a role with Black stereotypes.

I was conflicted because this role seemed to be wrapped up

in assumptions about us as Black folk.

Howard instilled in me a certain amount of pride.

And for my taste, this role didn't live up to those standards.

He was playing a character that, you know,

didn't really have very much of a back story.

-Uh-hmm. -One of the questions was,

"Where's my father? Where's my mother?"

And his experience with those producers was that, "Oh, well,

obviously your mom's addicted to drugs

and obviously your father abandoned you."

When I questioned that method of portrayal,

a different path opened up for me,

the path to my destiny.

If he were not that person, the person that would stand up

for what he believed in,

he would not have been right for the role of T'challa.

He wouldn't have been right to carry that mantle.

Did you ever think you would fall for an actor?

No. It was nowhere in my purview, you know.

I, I grew up in a small town in the Bay Area.

And I just wanted to work on concerts.

I was working at the Hollywood Bowl, and we did

-a James Brown tribute concert… -Right.

…and he came on as a special guest, and we met there.

It was shortly after he did Get On Up.

Hey!

(screeching)

I still kind of can't believe it.

Wait a minute. What do you mean--you-- what can't you believe?

It just I can't believe that--

I can't believe that I was so lucky that I got to love this person,

and I also got them to love me too.

Sure, he was an actor, but he was an artist.

He was an artist and he was a leader and he was a king.

That he chose me to be by his side for that is just--

he's an ancestor now and he is--and he is never leaving me.

No, not ever, Queen.

Never Queen.

You are now queen and leader.

Simone worked with Howard to establish

the Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship,

which covers four years of tuition for Black artists

at the fine arts school.

You said you didn't have any kids, but you know you have millions

-of kids around the world. -Yeah.

The legacy that you are sharing by doing this

is huge, because it's not just little boys,

but all these little girls who now don't necessarily have to be princesses.

They can be warriors.

Being a Boseman scholar is an honor and also granting me

opportunities to be in spaces that I--that I wouldn't have been in.

It reminds me every day the things that I need to do to be able

to walk in his footsteps and replicate his excellence.

SHAWN: The whole entire reason I came to Howard was because of Chadwick Boseman.

I want to be an actor and an artist, and Chadwick Boseman's legacy

has paved the way for me in the sense that he opened doors.

He was so connected to God.

Knowing that he had a job to do,

-he had to do his job… -Yeah.

…and nothing was more important than that.

Purpose is an essential element of you.

It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history.

Remember the struggles along the way

are only meant to shape you for your purpose.

Stand up. You are a king.

I know that when people fall in love with that character,

they're falling in love with Chad.

WHOOPI: That love echoing in theaters around the world

for what would be his last time suiting up as T'challa

in 2019's Avengers: Endgame…

(audience cheering and applauding)

MAN: Yes, baby!

WHOOPI: …to the hero who never needed recognition,

to the king who didn't want a crown…

Who…

Who are you?

WHOOPI: …to the man who modeled "Wakanda Forever,"

please know your legacy will live on forever.

ROBIN: Our thanks to Whoopi Goldberg.

The Chadwick Boseman Foundation for the arts is raising money

for causes that empower people of the African diaspora.

Finally tonight, as promised for the first time anywhere,

our exclusive look at Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,

opening November 11th.

We are under attack.

(people exclaiming)

Here.

(screams)

(speaks Xhosa)

-(man mumbles) -Are you all right?

Griot, activate the Sunbird.

Shuri, where are you?

Making my way to the city right now.

-Stand down. That is an order! -Mother, I'm with Aneka.

We can provide air support.

RAMONDA: Aneka, do not let her leave the lab.

Mother, y-y-you're breaking up.

-We can't hear you. -RAMONDA: Shuri!

Love you. Bye.

You just hung up on the Queen.

I just hung up on my mom.

There's a difference. Come on, let's go!