Ryan Coogler Says Chadwick Boseman Passed Away Before Reading The Completed Original 'Wakanda Forever' Script

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” hits theaters next Friday to wrap Phase 4 of the MCU. And while that’s exciting for Marvel fans, another more serious ambiance hangs over Ryan Coogler‘s sequel to his 2018 film. “Wakanda Forever” is a “Black Panther” movie without T’Challa himself, Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in 2020 after a long battle with colon cancer. Boseman’s death rocked the production of “Wakanda Forever.” Still, Coogler insisted on continuing development even without his original leading man, eventually crafting a story that worked T’Challa’s death into the Marvel universe. 

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On the first episode of the “Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast,” hosted by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Coogler detailed how Boseman’s death forced him to shift his story plans for “Wakanda Forever.” In fact, Boseman was so ill as Coogler developed his original version of the film he couldn’t even read the treatment. “He said he didn’t want to read it because he didn’t want to get in the way of any notes the studio might have, so he thought it was better if he read it later,” he explained. “But I found out later he was too tired to read it.” Boseman would pass away a few short weeks later.  

When Coogler found out about Boseman’s death shortly after the press release for “Wakanda Forever” went to media sources, he refused to believe the news. After his agencies and managers called to tell him, Coogler called Denzel Washington, who had recently worked with Boseman, for clarification. As he and Washington frantically looked on the internet hoping the news was a hoax, an official announcement about Boseman’s death came online. “I didn’t wanna believe it,” Coogler said, talking about the denial he went through. “The was how I found out.” Afterward, Cooger considered quitting “Wakanda Forever” altogther. “Yeah.  Yeah, I thought about all of that. I think every one did,” Coogler continued.

But Coogler realized he couldn’t abandon a sequel to “Black Panther” after he realized Boseman had worked despite his illness for years, hiding it from Coogler and cast and crew members. He elaborated on how Boseman’s persistence to keep acting despite his fatal disease made him realize he had to keep up with “Wakanda Forever.” “Everything about Chad was unique,” Coogler explained. “How he lived and how he died was unique. I realized he was an expert at withholding information. I found out in the release that he had been sick since I’ve known him. He was sick when I met him, I mean, he might been diagnosed shortly after we met and was struggling with it when we first met which was 2015.”

“When he passed, I just went back to all the things I asked him to do on the [2018] movie,” Coogler continued. “Fight this dude, hang on to this thing, jump onto this pad, and some days I would find him doing these things that were inexplicable.” Coogler then told a story of Boseman having to spend an inordinate amount of time in a warming tent after shooting scenes for a cold waterfall sequences. He also seemed to succumb to some despair. “I’d be like that’s odd [about the length of time in the tent]. And some days I would find him incredibly sad, but looking back on it, I think, ‘oh man, my mans was dying.’ It’s a shocking thing to realize and it’s also a thing where it’s like, ‘I can’t quit.’ If [Chadwick] could do all that, while he was [battling cancer], then this is just grief. So, it’s like, “we gotta push through.”

And Coogler and the rest of the “Wakanda Forever” cast and crew did push through. Advance critical word leading up to the film’s theatrical release next Friday hints that this may be the most emotionally heavy Marvel movie to date. But in light of Boseman’s death, Coogler & co. completing the film is a triumph, and a testament to the perserverance Boseman displayed in his life and career. “Black Panther: Wakanda” forever hits theaters on November 11.