The long-awaited sequel Wakanda Forever is currently filming in the United States and is expected to hit cinemas later next year. Ludwig Goransson confirmed that he has started to work on Wakanda Forever.
According to Variety, Goransson will be composing the score for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and he is in talks with the film’s director, Ryan Coogler.
Goransson has scored films such as Fruitvale Station, the Rocky franchise entries Creed and Creed II, Venom, and Tenet. He also composed the new fanfare for Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as the fanfare for the Star Wars brand logo. For his work on the 2018 superhero film Black Panther, he won the Grammy Award for Best Score soundtrack for Visual Media and the Academy Award for Best Original Score and he was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score.
Goransson said, “The most important thing for me and [director] Ryan [Coogler] in making the music for this film was to have the score rooted in traditional African music that was the number one most important thing. I actually went to West Africa right after I read the script. I told Ryan, The only way I can score this movie is to go to Africa and do my research and immerse myself in the culture.”
He also added, “It was incredible. It was such an experience; I was so moved by it. But after I saw it, I immediately understood that in order for me to really make the music work, I need to use this traditional African music and all of these instruments, but I also need to put the elements of that cinematic sweep of the orchestra, and also modern hip-hop production. So the most difficult part was to figure out how to infuse that traditional African music with an orchestra, but still keep the music sounding African.”
The score from Black Panther will be performed in three live-to-picture performances at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Bowl. The experience will be performed on 10-12 September, courtesy of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sengalese singer Baaba Maal, and an ensemble of African drummers. The performance will be conducted by Thomas Wilkins, principal conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
Goransson said, “I was thrilled of being approached for the project. What was most important to me was that we get the right players to play this. We have the best orchestra in the world; now let’s get the African musicians who played on the score.”
He also quoted, “The film was such a big part of my life, not just my music or my career, I was so committed, personally and musically, that I grew into another stage of my life. So going back to that now, revisiting that, is going to be heavy.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is all set to hit theatres on 8 July , 2022.