BLACK PANTHER Director Ryan Coogler Reveals Original Plans For Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa In WAKANDA FOREVER And Writing For Denzel Washington

Director Ryan Coogler is sharing his original vision for the Black Panther sequel, which he reworked after lead actor Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020.

via: CBM

Chadwick Boseman's star was already on the rise in Hollywood before his standout performances in movies like Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther. However, the latter set the stage for him to become one of the world's biggest stars, and major award success was almost certainly in his future. 

Tragically, Boseman's life was cut short after he lost a hard-fought battle with cancer in 2020. The actor's passing sent shockwaves across the world and left Marvel Studios without a T'Challa for its planned Black Panther sequel.

The decision was made not to recast the role; instead, the character died off-screen, and Shuri inherited the Black Panther mantle in 2022's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She will continue playing the hero in Avengers: Doomsday, but is expected to soon pass the baton to T'Challa's son, Toussaint/T'Challa II.

Talking to Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast, filmmaker Ryan Coogler reflected on his relationship with Boseman, revealing that the actor was too unwell to read his Black Panther 2 script.

"I finished it, and I hit him up to read it. He was too sick to read it, bro. That was kind of how the timing was. He was at a place where it wasn't gonna happen. Our relationship was really interesting. He meant a lot to me. I found out after his passing from his family and from his friends how much I meant to him. I wondered if he knew just how much he meant to me. He protected me from a lot, bro. Our relationship was one of a lot of protection, you know?"

"I was convinced on the toughest days on Panther that I was going to get fired. I would say it all the time. If the actors [were] taking their time to get out of makeup, I'm like, 'Yo, you got to hurry up, or they're going to fire me.' One day, he took me to the side and was like, 'Yo, stop saying that.' I was like, 'Man, I really feel that way.' He was like, "Look at me, bro. I would never let that happen to you. I would not let that happen to you.' Looking back, he was always protecting me."

"One of the strongest people was having his strength taken from him by this disease. It damaged me, bro. Probably irreparably, to be honest with you. But I love that script. I put so much into that version of the movie. I felt like I had gotten to know Chadwick as a performer. I threw a lot at Chad in the first Panther, but I realised I was just scratching the surface. Now I know what he can do. I'm going to push him to the limit."

Horowitz asked Coogler if there were any scenes, in particular, that he'd been excited to shoot in the original version of the sequel. With that, he went on to reveal the movie's scrapped plot and what he had planned for T'Challa and his son as they attempted to fend off an invading Namor.

"It was like a 180-page draft chock-full of them. The big thing about the script was this thing called the 'Ritual of Eight,' where when a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father and amongst them, and amongst those eight days, they have to go into the bush without any tools. The prince has to listen to everything that's asked of him by his father. But the rule is that for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question, and the father has to answer."

"During the course of those eight days, Namor launches an attack. He had to deal with somebody who was like insanely dangerous, but because of this ritual, his son had to be like joined at his hip the whole time. He was engaging in negotiations, fights, and his son had to be right there, or he'd have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken. That was what the movie was. [With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever], I got a chance to make a movie about women. I love that movie so much."

In other Black Panther news via the Happy Sad Confued podcast, Horowitz also asked Coogler what he's setting out to prove with the upcoming Black Panther 3 after all he went through making the second film.

"I'm not making movies to prove anything. I'm telling stories that I want to tell; that I'm obsessed with; that I feel the burning desire to do. [Black Panther 3 is] a movie that I'm incredibly excited about. That's really the truth of it. [The] opportunity to prove things to myself or prove things about the marketplace now, absolutely."

"I did enjoy making a movie that was essentially about powerful black women who were grappling with grief while trying to do incredibly important jobs, and also starring indigenous American people. I have a good time proving that movie could make $800 million. Absolutely. It brought me great joy to prove that. But that's not why I was making it."

"I was making it because I had a story that I was obsessed with. I had an opportunity to do things...I learned how to swim from that movie, bro. I've been terrified of the water. I got to live my best James Cameron life. I'm 20 feet in the tank. With a bunch of black and Mexican folks swimming around. That was awesome. I did get a chance to move through an inescapable human emotion of grief, and I get to tell that story to my kids."

"I got [Black Panther 3] on my heart. From the outside looking in, you might say, "Man, why is this dude making another one of those?' That's totally fine. That's totally a question that makes sense. I don't deny that. It's my job as a filmmaker to show why, it's my job to answer that question."

Oscar-winner Denzel Washington has already confirmed that he will star in Black Panther 3, but Coogler continued playing coy when it came to his plans for the actor in the MCU.

"Out of all the 10 billion people on the planet, however many billion we are, I'm gonna be the happiest one, bro," he said of how it would feel to direct Washington. "I'm gonna try [to write him a good part]."

Black Panther 3 remains shrouded in secrecy. However, it's been widely reported that, following the events of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the spotlight will shift to a new T'Challa (likely an adult version of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Toussaint).