Black Panther's Ryan Coogler Reveals How Chadwick Boseman's Memory Guided Him in Writing Marvel Sequel

By Spencer Perry

As Marvel fans know, the sudden death of Chadwick Boseman required the sequel to Black Panther to undergo a lot of changes and retooling. There was consideration by some of the people involved that they might not even return to make the movie, with director Ryan Coogler noting that he conidered leaving the movie business entirely after Boseman's death. Speaking this week during a public talk at the BAFTA's annual David Lean lecture (H/T Variety), Coogler opened up about how the memory of his former collaborator helped guide him in crafting the sequel, specifically his absence. 

"I like to start off every movie that I do with the question. A question that burns. A question that I don't have the answer to. A question I'm afraid to ask." Coogler went on to reveal which question he contemplated while working on the script for Black Panther: Wakanda Froever, adding: "I found myself in a position where I was uncomfortable. I was a director without a lead actor, tasked to make a film about a hero when we'd just lost ours," Coogler said of the time. "So the question was, how do you move on when your very existence and very identity was defined by another person, and you lose them? That question motivated us to complete the film."  

The filmmaker continued, "If I hadn't gotten started when I did, and graduated film school at 24 and made 'Fruitvale Station' at 25 and then 'Creed,' I never would have met Chadwick, who has had such a profound effect on my life."

Coogler previously opened up about his final conversation with Boseman prior to his death, revealing that he had given the actor the script for the sequel and was waiting to hear back from him. 

"I could tell he was laying down when we were talking. Simone [Boseman's then-fiancée] was with him, and he kicked Simone out because he told her he didn't want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with an NDA [laughs]. And she didn't want to leave him. So I could tell something was up," Coogler revealed in the first episode of Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast. "Then he said he didn't want to read [the script] because he didn't want to get in the way of whatever notes the studio might have. So he said he'd read it later, but I found out later he was too tired to read anything."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now playing in theaters around the world, and features a touching tribute to Boseman throughout the film but also in its opening moments. Rather than the traditional Marvel Studios logo that begins every MCU movie and TV show, the sequel features a unique, purple-hued version of the logo with footage of Boseman as his Marvel hero, rather than the collection of clips from every MCU project to date.  

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