Lupita Nyong’o shared a touching tribute on Instagram following the death of her “Black Panther” co-star, Dorothy Steel. She died this past Friday, in her home in Detroit.
© GettyImagesSteel played the role of a Merchant Tribe Elder in the film and was 95 years old. “I will miss Miss Dorothy Steel on the Black Panther 2 set. She was the realest. Wildly witty and very very warm. We all thoroughly enjoyed her presence,” wrote Nyong’o. “She was dedicated to her role in the movie and showed up with delightful enthusiasm. She often joked that she may not be here for the next day of shooting and it made me laugh uncomfortably. But she understood her own mortality and was not precious about her departure.”
Nyong’o explained that she found Steel inspiring and someone she looked up to due to the fact that she started her acting career while in her 80s. “Just learning that fact showed me that it is never too late to start, to learn, and to reach to fulfill your potential,” she wrote.
Nyong’o is currently working on “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever.” The movie, which was affected by the death of its lead star, is scheduled for release in November 2022. The film had to undergo a variety of changes due to the passing of Chadwick Boseman, who was a close friend of Nyong’o, and who died of colon cancer at the age of 43. “I did not know that I could miss both his laughter and his silence in equal measure. I do. I do... One year after his passing, the memory of @chadwickboseman remains this alive in me,” wrote Nyong’o on the anniversary of Boseman’s death.
Marvel executives have made it clear that the character of Chadwick Boseman wouldn’t be recasted and that he wouldn’t be added in digitally. “There‘s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us,” said Marvel executive producer Victoria Alonso in a statement to Deadline. “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 history and what we do to honour this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
Aside from her work in “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever,” Lupita Nyong’o is set to star in the TV series “Americanah” and in the film “The 355,” alongside Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Edgar Ramírez, and more.
