Ryan Coogler Reveals the ‘Insane’ Idea He Had for Chadwick Boseman’s Original Arc in ‘Black Panther 2’ | Video

We will never know how many memorable performances we lost when Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020, but perhaps the biggest “what if” surrounding the late actor was his planned return to Wakanda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which was partially rewritten by director Ryan Coogler into a tribute to him as his character, King T’Challa, died onscreen.

On the podcast “Happy Sad Confused,” Coogler was asked about what his initial plans for “Wakanda Forever” were had Boseman been able to play T’Challa again. “It was insane, bro,” said the “Sinners” filmmaker, describing a 180-page draft full of scenes that would have pushed Boseman’s skills far beyond the first “Black Panther.”

As with the rewritten version of “Wakanda Forever,” the original draft had Wakanda being attacked by Namor and the underwater civilization of Talokan, which is now under threat because T’Challa’s revelation of Wakanda’s advanced technology has sent the world’s powers on a desperate search for vibranium.

But Coogler’s original plan was to give T’Challa and Nakia a son, who grew up without his father as the superhero had been snapped out of existence for five years by Thanos in the “Avengers” films. Now forced to balance his duties as King of Wakanda with his duties as a father, T’Challa would have gone with his son on the Ritual of Eight, a Wakandan tradition in which father and son must survive in the wild for eight days.

“The prince has to do everything asked of him by his father, but the prince can ask any question of the father and the father has to answer,” Coogler explained. “Of course, during those eight days, Namor launches an attack….but because of the ritual, he has his son joined at the hip the whole time.”

Coogler also noted that when writing that initial draft, he did so with a better grasp of Boseman’s unique strengths as an actor after working with him on the first “Black Panther.” He compared the writing process to writing scenes for his longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan, who has appeared in all of Coogler’s films.

“I know what he’s capable of, and I know where he can be pushed and what he can handle, you know? So I throw a lot at Mike. I threw a lot at Chad in the first ‘Panther,’ but I realized I was just scratching the surface,” he said.

Following Boseman’s death, “Wakanda Forever” was written into a story around T’Challa’s grieving sister Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, who takes over as the new Black Panther and defends Wakanda against Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta Mejia. Both actors will return in “Avengers: Doomsday,” due out December 2026.

Watch the full “Happy Sad Confused” interview with Coogler in the clip above.

The post Ryan Coogler Reveals the ‘Insane’ Idea He Had for Chadwick Boseman’s Original Arc in ‘Black Panther 2’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.