Film star sparks hope British actor will return to franchise after years away

The actress remained coy of the speculation of a Dora Milaje or Okoye spin-off series, answering when asked about the rumours: ‘I cannot speak on that either. I truly cannot. Cannot! These franchises, part of the journey is to not share I guess. Let the audiences not know, leave suspense. They take you to an orientation of “do not spoil”!’

In Wakanda Forever, Okoye is stripped of her title as the general of the Dora Milaje, resulting in her taking up a new mantle as a Midnight Angel, complete with a brand new costume.

Speaking of her character’s emotional journey, Danai shared: ‘As a writer when I heard about it, I thought it was a great thing to tailspin a character like that, because clearly that’s what she was. She literally was Dora. So to take that away from her, it’s like what does she become?

‘I think there’s a lot to unpack thereI think there’s a lot left to unpack in terms of what is Okoye’s next act and is she really even ready to take it?’

So could Daniel end up making a return to the MCU in the near future?

‘I think it’s very possible,’ Danai replied to us, but she admitted she isn’t sure if or when it’ll happen.

‘I have no idea, I’m just speculating like you, but I think it’s very possible that we’ll see more of W’Kabi. I can’t imagine why we wouldn’t. He’s a fantastic character. Daniel Kaluuya is unbelievable. So I think there’s no reason why we wouldn’t see more of him and of course, that interaction is at the core of it all. I think that’d be interesting. But I have no dets on that.’

Danai shared how ‘difficult’ it was to return for a Black Panther sequel following the devastating death of Chadwick, who died in 2020 aged 43 after being diagnosed with colon cancer.

‘I felt that Ryan [Coogler] did an incredible job in terms of the most important mission that we had, which was to honour Chadwick and I think that to me, was the absolute success of that film was how beautifully it did that,’ she said.

‘It was obviously a very difficult process for us to return without him, and also, it was also a time where we were able to cleave to each other because we hadn’t been able to really before since the loss, since his passing.

‘So we were able to be there for each other, but stepping into telling the story again without him, it was not an easy process. We really had to lean in on each other like never before.

‘Even the new people who came in, it’s like they really understood what we were dealing with. So they were beautiful participants in that journey with us. It deeply made us more of a family unit to try and get through this without him and for him.’

Before making her mark on Marvel, Danai became a global superstar as Michonne in The Walking Dead, a role she recently came back to in the spin-off sequel series The Ones Who Live, with Andrew as her great love Rick.

Danai outlined how ‘great’, and ‘organic’ it felt to come back to the franchise with her co-star, saying that it ‘felt like it was meant to happen, like we were meant to get the story fully told’.

As fans of the original series will remember, Rick goes missing and is presumed dead, but then Michonne goes on a quest to find him after finding evidence that he might still be alive.

‘We’d left the audience with cliffhangers on how both of us left the series. The world needed to know what happened to Rick Grimes and the world needs to know if Michonne finds him,’ she added.

‘So it felt like the right thing to do to bring them back to complete the story that we proposed that we would complete.’

In addition to being the lead stars of the show, Danai and Andrew, 50, were also co-creators and executive producers on the drama this time around.

‘You get to the point where you’ve been in a show for so long, as long as we were in The Walking Dead, that you are kind of in those roles anyway, but you don’t have the title,’ Danai said of the work they both did off-screen to bring The Ones Who Live to life.

‘So it just felt very, once again, the word is organic that we were in the roles that were just the right thing for us to do in terms of how much we knew the world, how much we knew the characters, how much we knew what was right for the characters, how much we know the fandom. It made sense that was the next step that we had to take.’