Danai Gurira’s role as general of the Dora Milaje, the all-woman combat force of Wakanda, will continue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The award-winning actress will return as Okoye in the upcoming Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Her role will also extend to the silver screen for an origin spinoff series by Ryan Coogler for Disney+. Gurira’s lawyer Jamie Mandelbaum confirmed the brokered deals with The Hollywood Reporter.
Since the Dora Milaje made their big-screen debut, the expert defense team has made appearances in multiple films alongside King T’Challa, played by the late Chadwick Boseman. Most recently, Florence Kasumba—who played Dora Milaje member, Ayo in the acclaimed film—guested in a few episodes of the latest Marvel, Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The Black Panther sequel is set to be released on July 8, 2022. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced in December that the film would not recast T’Challa after Boseman’s death in August 2020 after a battle with colon cancer. Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia), Letitia Wright (Shuri), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Daniel Kaluuya (W’Kabi) are all also expected to return.
“Chadwick Boseman was an immensely talented actor and an inspirational individual who affected all of our lives,” Feige said at the time. “His portrayal of T’Challa the Black Panther is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel’s past. It’s for that reason we will not recast the character.”
VIBE previously reported the film is set to begin filming in July 2021 and will last approximately six months. Executive producer Victoria Alonso shared that Boseman will not be added through CGI.
“There’s only one Chadwick, and he’s not with us,” Alonso said. “Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, in reality.”