Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Production Underway: "It's Clearly Very Emotional Without Chad"

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has started filming this week.

Production on the highly anticipated sequel to Marvel's 2018 superhero blockbuster as studio boss Kevin Feige admitted the cast and crew is finding it "very emotional" returning to work without late actor Chadwick Boseman, who died in August 2020.

Feige told Variety: "It's clearly very emotional without Chad.

"But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.”

Filmmaker Ryan Coogler is back to direct from his own screenplay, and work got underway at Pinewood Studios in Atlanta on Tuesday (June 29).

Plot details are being kept under wraps and so is the cast, although Feige insisted the original stars are set to return.

It's thought that the likes of Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett could all reprise their roles.

Besides the sequel, Coogler is also developing a TV series set within the world of Wakanda.

Last month, Bassett — who played Romanda, the mother of Boseman's character T'Challa/Black Panther — admitted it will be a challenge to surpass the success of the original movie, but she believes in the team.

She said: "It's going to be interesting to surpass the cultural phenomenon that it was. It's going to be really interesting to see how we do that again."

The star added that she has faith in Coogler to make the film successful despite the challenges posed by the tragic loss of Chadwick.

Bassett insisted: "But if there's any chance of it being great, I think we have [that with] Ryan Coogler, a visionary, a writer, director and... the creative team that he surrounds himself with, whether it's the DP or the costume designer or the producers."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is slated to release in July 2022. — BANG SHOWBIZ