Ryan Coogler Reveals His Original Vision For ‘Black Panther 2’ Before Chadwick Boseman’s Death

When Black Panther debuted in 2018, it appeared that Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa was poised to become the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), particularly as the original Avengers began to step aside.

By the time Avengers: Endgame arrived, Black Panther stood shoulder to shoulder with Captain America and Iron Man. The franchise’s future looked undeniably bright.

Source: Marvel Studios

During this period, Ryan Coogler and his team were already hard at work on Black Panther 2, developing a script that would continue T’Challa’s story and return audiences to Wakanda.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

Boseman’s Passing Changed Everything

On August 28, 2020, Chadwick Boseman passed away from colon cancer at the age of 43. Suddenly, Marvel found itself in uncharted territory.

In the wake of Boseman’s tragic passing, Coogler and his team had to overhaul Black Panther 2.

Eventually, the decision was made to kill off T’Challa in the film’s opening scene and shift the franchise’s focus to Letitia Wright’s Suri, who assumed the Black Panther mantle.

Source: Marvel Studios

While Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was well-received by fans and critics alike, many have continued to wonder where the franchise would have gone had Boseman lived.

Over the years, we learned that the original Black Panther 2 was to include Namor, but details have been scarce.

Photo: MCU

Now, however, Coogler has finally shared more of his original vision.

Coogler’s Original Vision

During a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Coogler revealed that his initial Black Panther 2 script would have been centered on T’Challa’s relationship with his young son.

Source: CNN

“The big thing about the script was it was a thing called the Ritual of Eight,” Coogler explained.

“Where when a prince is 8 years old, he has to go spend 8 days in the bush with his father, and they have to go out into the bush without any tools and the prince has to do everything that is asked of him by his father, but the rule is for those 8 days the prince can ask the father any question and the father has to answer, and during the course of those 8 days, Namor launches an attack.”

Source: Marvel Studios

While T’Challa’s son was introduced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the original script would have put him at the center of the action.

“So that was what the movie was, he had to deal with someone, and it was a different version of Namor in that script, but someone who’s insanely dangerous, but because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time,” he continued.

Photo: Marvel

“So while he was engaging in negotiations, fights, and [stuff], his son had to be right there or have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken. So that was what the movie was. It was insane, and Chadwick was going to kill it, but life goes as it goes.”

Praise For ‘Wakanda Forever’

In the wake of Boseman’s passing, Coogler reworked Black Panther 2 into a story about grief. While the film was not his initial vision, he still holds it in high regard.

Source: Marvel Studios

“I got a chance to make a movie about women, I love that movie so much, bro.”