Ryan Coogler has been frank about the toll that Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death took on him personally, as well as the rest of the cast of the classic Marvel film.
Now, with the release of its highly anticipated sequel Wakanda Forever just a week away, the writer/director is opening up about his intentions for the film had Boseman lived to be a part of it.
“It was different. It had similar themes, but it was very much rooted in his perspective,” Coogler revealed to Yahoo! Entertainment. “And he was going through some things personally that are relatable, different from what Shuri [Letitia Wright] and Ramonda [Angela Bassett] go through in this movie.”
“I wrote some killer lines for him. It’s a strange thing to think about.”
Since the film has begun screening at various premieres around the world. Coogler has notably been wearing a gold and Black diamond chain bearing Boseman’s face.
With pervading theme of grief marked in the film’s plot in Boseman’s absence, it may surprise fans to learn that grief was always planned to be a part of the sequel’s story, even prior to the tragic news of the actor’s passing.
“[T’Challa] was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after being gone for five years,” Coogler revealed to Inverse. “As a man with so much responsibility to so many, coming back after a forced five years’ absence, that’s what the film was tackling. He was grieving time he couldn’t get back. Grief was a big part of it.”
But naturally, changes had to be made once this film, which has meant so much to many a Black comic book fan, lost its beloved star.
“Who the protagonist was, the flaws of the protagonist, what the protagonist was dealing with in their journey, all of that stuff had to be different due to us losing him and the decisions that we made about moving forward.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters everywhere on November 11.