Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1486000
THE ARTISAN WINTER 2023 • 59 I wanted to reflect on the first Black Panther film but treat Wakanda Forever as a completely separate movie. I didn't want to do the same old thing. After reading the script, I began by talking to the director, Ryan Coogler (he is my hair muse), and discussing what his thoughts were about the characters. We broke down every character in relation to where they were now in Wakanda Forever and their character arc from the first movie to the second movie. We also talked about how the story had changed with Chadwick Boseman's death, and how we would honor him with this movie. I then started designing looks based on that information. I used Photoshop to show all my hair styling ideas to the director and talked to each actor via Zoom to show them the hair story for their character. Here is each major Wakanda character's hair story: Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) Nakia had evolved. She moved away from Wakanda to live in Haiti and while living there, she grew her hair into locs with her signature red hair color. Natascha Ladek made the wig, and Nappstar made the locs. The locs are custom colored Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia Angela Bassett as Ramonda