‘Voices Rising’ Series Showcases Inspiration Behind Music of ‘Wakanda Forever’

Disney+ released the first of three episodes from its new series, Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever, on Tuesday (February 28).

The series, which is directed by Mexican American documentarian Bernardo Ruiz (Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground), will spotlight the work of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson and what it took him to create such an eclectic score for the blockbuster Marvel sequel.

Göransson won an Oscar for Best Score for 2019’s original Black Panther film. He was also nominated for an Oscar this year for Wakanda Forever.

The first episode, “Nigeria: Past is Present,” which is currently streaming, will be followed by two more episodes – “Mexico: Con La Brisa” on March 7 and “London: Bring It Home” on March 14.

For the music for Namor (Tenoch Huerta) and the underwater, Mesoamerican kingdom he comes from, Göransson traveled to Mexico City and worked with music archaeologists, who are experts in the field of Mayan music and instruments. “They’ve been doing a lot of research in trying to reimagine what that Mayan music would have sounded like and recorded a bunch of different instruments,” he said.

“Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever … showcas[es] how this extraordinary team pushed the boundaries of what a Hollywood score and soundtrack can be, creating an immersive, moving experience in the process,” a press release from Disney+ reads.

In a trailer for the series, Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler said that “music is really a conversation” that he considers “spiritual.”

Göransson said sounds were collected from all over the world and brought together for Wakanda Forever. “All the music that we made, it doesn’t feel like the past,” he said. “It feels like the future.”