Years after Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrived in theaters as both a sequel and a farewell, Ryan Coogler is offering one of his most candid accounts yet of how limited the creative process was before Chadwick Boseman's death. The comments paint a sobering picture of a production that barely had time to begin before tragedy halted everything.
Coogler opened up during a recent conversation on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, a clip of which was later shared to Instagram. In it, the Fruitvale Station filmmaker explained that Boseman’s health had declined to the point where he was physically unable to read the sequel’s script. The admission underscores just how limited the creative process was on Wakanda Forever before Boseman passed away in August 2020. As Coogler put it:
Honestly, what happened was I finished it, and I hit him up to read it, and he was too sick to read, bro. That was kind of how the timing was. He was at a place where it just wasn’t gonna happen.
That detail adds important context to a question fans have debated for years: how much of Wakanda Forever was actually designed with Chadwick Boseman in mind? According to Coogler, while a script did exist, Boseman’s condition meant the sequel was never truly in motion. As the Oakland native put it, it simply “wasn’t going to happen” in the way they had originally hoped. As a result, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had to be rebuilt almost entirely from the ground up, moving forward without its star and emotional center.
The Black Panther moviemaker has spoken before about the grief that followed Boseman’s passing, but this latest reflection underscores just how sudden and destabilizing the loss was on a deeply personal level. In the same conversation, he admitted how hard it hit him to learn what Boseman had thought of him, saying:
He meant a lot to me when I found out… I found out after his passing, through his family and friends, how much I meant to him. It fucked me up pretty good, bro. And I wonder if he knew just how much he meant to me.
Boseman had kept his illness largely private, even from collaborators, and continued working whenever he could. That he never reached a point where he could fully engage with the sequel’s script highlights how quickly his condition worsened behind the scenes.
For Marvel Studios, the question of whether to recast T’Challa became one of the most difficult decisions in the history of the MCU. Ultimately, Coogler and the studio chose to let Boseman’s take on Black Panther rest, reshaping Wakanda Forever into a story centered on mourning and legacy. Characters like Shuri, Queen Ramonda, and Namor stepped into the spotlight, allowing the film to process loss both within the narrative and for the people making it.
The Creed helmer has previously described making the film as one of the hardest experiences of his career. The director has repeatedly said he considered walking away entirely, unsure whether continuing without the late T'Challa actor was even possible. It was encouragement from Boseman’s family and the cast that ultimately convinced him to keep going, with the understanding that the film would serve as a tribute rather than a replacement.
Those feelings carried through the entire production, something the cast has echoed repeatedly since the film’s release. Speaking around the time of the premiere, Lupita Nyong'o said the story deliberately embraced the real grief the cast was experiencing.
Danai Gurira described the sequel as being “grounded in him and rooted in the power of his spirit,” pointing to Boseman’s leadership and generosity as something that never left the set. Coogler carried that presence with him in a very literal way, wearing a necklace bearing Boseman’s image throughout filming as a reminder of what the movie was meant to honor. That influence didn’t end there either. Coogler has continued to carry Boseman’s memory forward, allowing it to inform and inspire his work beyond Wakanda Forever, including later projects like Sinners.
Hearing the Sinners director speak so plainly about how Black Panther 2 had to be reshaped after Boseman’s death makes the finished film feel even more remarkable. Wakanda Forever wasn’t built on an abandoned blueprint. It was rebuilt from the ground up, shaped by grief, memory, and a shared commitment to honoring a man who forever changed the MCU, even in his absence.
Black Panther and Wakanda Forever are both available to stream with a Disney+ subscription, along with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in release order.
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