In a recent podcast interview, Black Panther filmmaker Ryan Coogler shared some insight into his original plans for Black Panther II, which changed dramatically following the death of series star Chadwick Boseman in August 2020. The final film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, centers on King T’Challa’s death and his succession process as leader of both Wakanda and Black Panther, set during his war with Namor (Tenoch Huerta). and the army of the fictional nation of Tarokan.
In the original script, Coogler notes that the war with Namor would still have taken place, but the main conflict involved T’Challa and his son, who remained with him throughout the conflict and were unable to seek refuge.
Coogler said that while he was proud of the script and was disappointed it didn’t come to fruition, he was fortunate and proud to have produced a version of Wakanda Forever that centered around the women of Wakanda. He also promised that the third movie is still in production and that he needs to make it because he is passionate about it, saying, “I’m working on this movie with all my heart. This movie is close to my heart.”
“I finished writing it and went to visit him to read it, and he was too sick to read it, brother. It was like the timing,” Coogler said on Josh Horowitz’s podcast, Happy Sad Confused. “The biggest thing in the script was something called the ‘Rite of Eight’, where when the prince turned eight years old, he had to spend eight days in the bush with his father. During those eight days, the prince could ask his father any questions he wanted, and his father would have to answer. During those eight days, Namor would launch an attack… In that script, there was another version. But[T’Challa]had to deal with someone who was extremely dangerous, and because of this ritual, his son had to be chained at the waist the whole time… or he had to break this ritual that had never been broken before. It was crazy, and Chadwick was going to kill him, but life is what it is.”
Director Coogler explained that he finished writing the script before Boseman’s death, but that Boseman did not have the energy to read it because he was already in critical condition when he finished it. He said he felt he had barely scratched the surface of what Boseman could do as an actor and was looking forward to seeing what the star could do in his second film.
“Our relationship was very interesting because he cared so much about me, but I learned from his family and friends after his death how much I meant to him, and that confused me quite a bit,” Coogler told Horowitz. “I wondered if he knew how much he meant to me. But I wondered, he protected me from a lot of things. Our relationship was one of many protections. During my toughest days at Panther, I was sure I was going to get fired…He was like, ‘I’ll never let that happen.'”
Black Panther grossed over $1 billion at the global box office, became the highest-reviewed Marvel film in history, and was nominated for Best Picture. The sequel’s box office gross was $859 million, a significant drop in revenue, but roughly in line with expectations given Marvel’s overall decline since Avengers: Endgame. The film also spawned two Disney+ spin-off series, the live-action Ironheart and the animated Eyes of Wakanda, based on the characters introduced in Wakanda Forever.
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