Ryan Coogler Talks About Teaming Up with Ludwig Göransson and Rihanna for ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Music

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler’s connect with composer-producer Ludwig Göransson goes back to when they were in film school together over a decade ago. “We connected listening to actual songs that were recorded and released, we were listening to songs more in relation to film scores,” Coogler says in a new video interview promoting the superhero film.

With the Black Panther sequel now hitting streaming services, Coogler says that back in school, he and Göransson traded stories about where they wanted to be in the next 10 to 20 years. The filmmaker says, “He said I wanna make music for major movies but also make hit records as a producer. He’s done all of that.”

Göransson brought to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever one of the few things anyone expected – the comeback song of pop star Rihanna, who sang and co-wrote “Lift Me Up” with Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems. Coogler and Göransson are also listed as co-writers for the song, which is nominated for Best Original Song at the Oscars 2023. It’s all part of the vision that the duo from when they became friends. “One thing we would talk about is like making a film where all of the music is composed by him, the actual score, and also the needle drops will be songs that speak to artists and talk about the themes of the film and everything will be like bespoke. We never had the opportunity to do that until now on this film,” Coogler says.

The rest of the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack brings in artists from South Africa (“Love & Loyalty (Believe)” by Busiswa, DBN Gogo and others), Nigeria (“Alone” by Burna Boy, “Coming Back For You” by Fireboy DML) and Mexico (“Pantera” by Aleman ft Rema and “Árboles Bajo El Mar” by Mare Advertencia Lirika and Vivir Quintana), among 20 songs. The original score also brought in voices like U.K.’s Jorja Smith and Senegalese star artist Baaba Maal.

Coogler says they even traveled to Mexico and the Yucatan and “all over the continent of Africa” to get the music right even as they shot sequences and got into post-production of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film. The filmmaker adds about working with Rihanna, “It was absolutely incredible. ‘Lift Me Up’ was a song that was super close to our hearts. The core, which is a melodic bass, was recorded in Senegal many years ago on Ludwig’s first trip there. Happy to have brought that back and add it to some melodies from Mexico. I wrote some words when I was in Oakland, that ended up being the chorus. We took those with the beat to Nigeria, sat with Tems. That’s what we took to Rihanna. She put down something beautiful for us.”

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, Feb 1st onwards, in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.