When Chadwick Boseman passed away from cancer in August 2020, no one knew what to expect from Ryan Coogler‘s already confirmed “Black Panther” sequel. Would Cooger and Kevin Feige recast someone else as T’Challa? Would the sequel be scrapped entirely even though the 2018 film was a mega-hit with critics and audiences alike? Thankfully, Marvel Studios went ahead with the sequel and chose not to recast Boseman’s iconic role. Instead, Empire reports, Coogler and Feige had the loss of Boseman inflect the sequel’s new direction, with the central thematic question being, “How do you carry on in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds?”
READ MORE: ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ Trailer Teases Namor, Atlantis, Ironheart & More
“Unfortunately, that question became more and more relevant,” Coogler told Empire in a new feature about “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” “Both for humanity as a whole, but also for the people in our production who were coming back for this one. It became super-relevant when we lost our bro.” But even with Boseman gone, Coogler said, “Wakanda Forever” is still “spiritually very similar” to the original sequel he planned with the actor. For one, the Wakandans still battle T’Challa’s classic nemesis from the Marvel comics, Namor, played by Tenoch Huerta; but it’s not Boseman’s character leading the charge against the new adversary.
Instead, it’s other characters from the 2018 film who battle the villain, including Letitia Wright‘s Shura, T’Challa’s tech-genius sister. But does Shuri don the Black Panther mantle in the upcoming film, as she occasionally has in the comics? “That’s a tricky question to answer,” Wright told Empire. She did discuss the possibility with Coogler and Boseman on the set of the 2018 film, though. “I had a chat about it with Ryan and Chad when we were making “Black Panther,” and we touched on it briefly,” she continued. “When I realized I was playing Shuri, it was something that I really looked forward to.” But in “Wakanda Forever,” Shuri’s most important arc is mourning his brother’s death, as Wright mourns Boseman’s. “Shuri’s journey has allowed me to grieve, to cry, to laugh, and to gain strength that I never thought I could ever have,” Wright said.
And that arc of grief affects other “Black Panther” characters, too, including Angela Bassett‘s Queen Ramonda, Winston Duke‘s M’Baku, and Lupita Nyong’o‘s Nakia. That’s what Coogler wanted to have take center stage in “Wakanda Forever”: the supporting cast of the first movie continuing as an ensemble without their leader. “This unique group is more like a band than it is a group of actors, and Chad was our lead singer,” explained Coogler. “So for me, it was like, ‘How do I figure out a song that they can still get up there and sing?’, in light of what we were dealing with.”
Some of the cast weren’t sure about Coogler’s idea, especially Nyong’o, who knew what Coogler originally envisioned for the sequel before Boseman’s passing. “I didn’t have doubts – I had dread,” Nyong’o told Empire. “Ryan had walked me through what the film was going to be when Chadwick was still alive. And so once we lost him, the thought that we could go on, it was just unfathomable to me.” But what Coogler came up with for “Wakanda Forever” changed Nyong’o’s mind completely. “What Ryan ended up sharing with me was just so utterly truthful and beautiful,” she continued. “By the end of it, I was in tears.”
And Boseman’s presence will still be in “Wakanda Forever,” even though T’Challa isn’t part of the film. “It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” Feige told Empire about their decision not to recast the character for the sequel. “Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window. And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And Ryan poured that into the story.” And once Coogler and Feige decided not to recast Boseman, their talks about the sequel turned into what it is now. “The conversations were entirely about, yes, ‘What do we do next?’” Feige explained. “And how could the legacy of Chadwick – and what he had done to help Wakanda and the Black Panther become these incredible, aspirational, iconic ideas – continue? That’s what it was all about.”
So, expect Coogler to deliver an epic, heart-rending and cathartic movie with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The film hits theaters on November 11. Check out new pics from the movie below
