Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: Crafting Precious Artifacts

Making waves, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever reached number one at the box office on its opening weekend. The film is the second in the Black Panther series and the third Marvel film Wētā Workshop has contributed to (see our previous articles on Thor: Love and Thunder and Thor: Ragnarok). Directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever picks up from where we left the first film and introduces new characters from the underwater city of Talokan.  

Diving back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, our crew worked alongside Academy Award-winning Costume Designer Ruth Carter, bringing her visions to life.

Wētā Workshop manufactured richly detailed costumes for seven characters. This included two costumes for the protagonist Namor, one ceremonial and one for battle; one each for M’Baku, Attuma, Namora; and the base costumes for the Talokan warriors, one female and one male.

Challenge: crafting suits for underwater environments

Each costume spends a significant amount of time submerged and needed to withstand this treatment.

We tested these costumes in a swimming pool to see how they behaved underwater. Using our crew as models, our media production team filmed them as they walked and swam. This footage was used to evaluate how the costumes would move on underwater sets. Namor’s costume needed some ingenuity. Art Director Lans Hansen took the lead on this project and is an experienced diver.

“Most of the pieces around the wrists, arms and torso stayed on really well,” says Lans. “But the collar was a real challenge because it doesn’t have straps to hold it down. To solve this, we used coin-sized magnets, concealed underneath the collar and held to the skin with a waterproof-film. This worked well underwater and allowed the collar-piece to be ‘clipped’ on and off quickly.”

Beauty as well as function

A defining feature of Namor’s costumes is Talokan Jade, a clear and precious stone streaked with vibranium (unique to the Marvel Cinematic Universe). The challenge was to create a fictional material that would look authentic. Our crew achieved the Talokan vibranium look by layering clear resins with opalescent mylar flakes. This simulated the depth and random beauty of real precious stones, but in a flexible, stunt-friendly material.

Four out of the seven costumes have head pieces. When designing and building costumes, the actors’ comfort and range of movement are key. For large headdress such as Attuma’s hammerhead shark-inspired design, we utilised light-weight foams and paint techniques to achieve the bone-like material, and glossy obsidian blades. These were mounted to a skin-tight fiberglass shell to spread the weight over the actor’s head. For scenes with action, where size of the full headdress was unpractical, we created light-weight, cut-down versions as a base for the film’s VFX team to add sections in digitally. 

Where traditional techniques and new technology meet

The Wētā Workshop crew combined traditional hand-carving with digital techniques to achieve the qualities of the former, with the manufacturing efficiency of the latter. M’Baku’s costume is a great example of this.

While it is possible to ‘fake’ wood grain, we have found best results come from utilising real timber, which comes with the natural irregularities and imperfections which make it believable.

M’Baku’s costume required several very large blocks of wood. Our Senior Prop Maker, Pati AhSue, travelled out to a timber recycling yard as he’d been tipped off that there were some blocks from an old pier available. Pati inspected each block of the recycled timber, looking for something that had a fine grain and depth to it. He chose one that had natural cracks, to give the costume an authentic and aged aesthetic. This would make it look lived in, and as though it had survived previous battles.

Once back in the workshop, our CNC Technician, Nate Castro, used a CNC machine to carve the blocks down to the approximate size and shape of the armour pieces. Once removed from the machine, they went back to Pati for their final hand-carving and detailing.

The results

“The team was wonderful to work with. I couldn’t have asked for a better project to be my first introduction to Wētā Workshop and discover what they are capable of, now I’m fully attuned to their process and talents. We took our time and discussed each element and what it meant in the storytelling. That was important. The work was intentional and focused. I can’t imagine anyone else creating this work with this result. Thank you, Wētā Workshop, and everyone who had a hand in the building and creation of this wonderful costume. Your work has elevated the superhero film.”

— Ruth Carter, Costume Designer

Ruth was recognised by the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards when she won Best Costume Design for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She has also been nominated for an Academy Award in Costume Design and a Costume Designers’ Guild Award in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film category.

In total, Wētā Workshop delivered 34 costumes across seven designs. We manufactured 447 rigged costume components, 370 moulds, more than 3,460 individually cast items and over 350 physical samples.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now available to watch on Disney+