Black Panther Composer Talks Discovering Sound of Mayan Music for Namor and Talokan
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has finally hit theaters and fans worldwide have finally been able to see what happens to the mantle after the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman. Not only does the film introduce us to a new Black Panther, it introduces us to Namor the Submariner. Namor is Marvel Studios equivalent to Aquaman as well as the first major mutant to appear in the main MCU. The film already crafted an amazing world for Wakanda with its bombastic score, locale and cinematography, so you'd think it would be easy to do the same for the city of Talokan. During a recent interview with Deadline, composer Ludwig Göransson talked making the music for the character and his underwater city.
"Mayan music and the culture was forcibly erased, so we don't know exactly what that music sounded like," Göransson told the trade. "The first thing I did when thinking how we can reimagine this sound and this music was to contact some musical archeologists in Mexico City. I went down there and started working with these experts who showed me instruments that were found in graves, like sea shells and turtle shells, clay flutes, a lot of them sound like sounds from nature. There were different kinds of whistles, a flute called the death whistle and one called the flute of truth. These were all part of the Talokan sound and they became integral to Namor. What's interesting is like with the seashell, it's very limited on range and the melody you can play, but the timbre resembles a horn."
Marvel Studios unveiled their plans for the next three years, with two new Avengers movies being announced. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars will both make their way into theaters in 2025. One thing that wasn't announced on the slate was a third Black Panther movie. Even though it's all but guaranteed that fans will receive a third Black Panther movie, Marvel producer Nate Moore revealed during a recent interview that the studio and Ryan Coogler both want to see the fan response to the highly-anticipated sequel before agreeing to do a third film in the franchise.
"That's a great question. To be honest, this is not me trying to not answer the question," Moore said. "We really want to see how audiences receive the film, and I think Ryan's really interested to see how the film plays before we decide. There are certainly ideas we've floated around of what a third film could be if we get to make it. But until the movie comes out, we're a bit superstitious in that way. We don't want to count our chickens, because you never know what's going to happen."
The most recent Marvel Studios film to hit theaters was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In the sequel, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M'Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T'Challa's death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda. It has yet to be seen where the Midnight Angels tie into the story.
Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominque Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livanalli. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11.
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