Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Lupita Nyong’o is gushing about the opportunity she received when she was asked to speak Spanish and called it a “lifelong dream come true.”
“I was so excited about it,” Nyong’o said in EW’s Around the Table video series. “It was just a straight gift. And I was very, very happy to do it… I’ve always wanted to work in Spanish and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that that opportunity would come in Black Panther.”
The Hollywood sensation, who was born to Kenyan parents in Mexico City, added that “this film represents different sides of my heritage. Being born in Mexico and having that Mesoamerican culture represented, it’s something that’s very close to me.”
Wakanda Forever is a riveting story sharing the journey of Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye and Dora Milaje’s quest to protect their African country from interfering world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. The country, Wakanda, works to embrace its next chapter and highlights how they must stick together with Nakia and Everett Ross to set a new path for their kingdom. The film also features a villain named Namor and the underwater civilization that he rules, Talokan.
The insertion of Native American culture in Wakanda Forever provided Nyong’o the opportunity to speak Spanish, but it was not the first time her character Nakia spoke in languages other than English. She said that her character’s multilingualism was one of Wakanda’s superpowers.
“I always thought that was a very cool thing from the last movie that she spoke Korean, and I always thought that had never been seen before,” Nyong’o said. She was referring to a scene in Black Panther when they were in South Korea. She received accolade from Korean fans, who complimented her accent, diction and pronunciation.
