Winston Duke Says Chadwick Boseman's Death Left 'Gaping Hole' on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Set
Chadwick Boseman's death two years ago continues to deeply affect the people who knew and loved him.
Winston Duke opened up about the experience of filming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever without friend and co-star Boseman during an interview on the Jemele Hill Is Unbothered podcast released Monday.
"That is something that we have to wrestle with daily on set because there was a gaping hole when it came to his presence," the 38-year-old actor revealed. "You felt it daily. You felt him not being there."
Marvel/Disney/Kobal/Shutterstock Chadwick Boseman
Related: Marvel's Kevin Feige on Not Recasting Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther Role: 'It Was Much Too Soon'
Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020 at age 43, had been diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016 and had battled it privately for four years as it progressed to stage IV.
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty (2) Winston Duke and Chadwick Boseman
His unexpected passing took Hollywood by surprise — and left an indelible mark on cinema with his award-winning role as the titular character in Black Panther.
RELATED VIDEO: Remembering Chadwick Boseman
Duke said the set was very different this time around. "He was a very gentle presence of strength, power, and scope," the Tobagonian actor shared on the podcast. "You knew he was there, but he didn't have to say anything. He wasn't walking around with a big ego… You don't realize the impact when they're there. But when they're not, it's apparent. You feel it intrinsically and that was the experience on set daily for a year."
Others working on the film felt the loss too. "I think this film has the fog of loss over it, and anamorphic lenses warp the image a little bit," director and co-writer Ryan Coogler recently told Entertainment Weekly. "Sometimes when you go through profound loss, it can warp how you look at the world."
"What we were after was just making it feel tactile, even though it felt like a dream," added the filmmaker, 36. "The film should feel like a really wild dream that you would have, but where everything felt like it was really there."
Duke's interview hit the same day the second trailer dropped for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
In Marvel Studios' latest trailer for the sequel to 2018's Black Panther, familiar faces unite to team up against Namor (Tenoch Huerta), leader of the underwater kingdom of Talocan.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters Nov. 11