Chadwick Boseman Chose Not to Read Wakanda Forever Script Before Death
The Black Panther star refused to read the Black Panther 2 script before he passed away after a lengthy battle with colon cancer in August 2020.
Ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever November release the movie's director Ryan Coogler spoke about the film with The Official Black Panther Podcast host Ta-Nehisi Coates.
In the conversation the filmmaker recalled his last call to the MCU actor when he asked Boseman if "he wanted to read [the script] before [he] got notes." But the T-Challa actor chose not to preferring "to read it later."
"He was like, yeah, he said he didn't wanna read it 'cause he didn't wanna get in the way of whatever notes the studio might have. So he was like, 'It's better if I can read it later.' But I found later that he was too tired to read anything." (via)
Boseman was apparently too tired due to his illness and passed away shortly after Coogler's phone call. No one knew about the actor's colon cancer throughout almost all of his MCU tenure. Following the Boseman's death Marvel Studio announced in December 2020 its decision to kill-off the character he played as a way to "honor the legacy that Chad helped us build through his portrayal of the king of Wakanda." With the departure of the main character the writers' team had to go back to square one and rework the script.
Coogler said he wanted Boseman to read this script as they started working on the sequel almost right after Black Panther was released.
He said that he did a "deep dive" looking at various stories and finding a "few characters he would interact with." The director also noted that he "was always excited to come back" and the sequel was going to be a "T'Challa vehicle."
"It was like, 'Okay, we set the world up. Now, we're gonna do the deepest dive into this guy that you could imagine.' And that was what excited me even more, 'cause I knew Chad better as a performer and… I knew him better as a guy. So I felt like I had a better [handle] on T'Challa as a character after making the first film," Coogler said.
It is to be noted that the first film Black Panther set several box office records. It earned $1.3 billion internationally and became the highest-grossing movie by a Black filmmaker. It is also on the list of top 10 highest grossing films (comes 9) of all time.
The sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever follows Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M'Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje struggle as they try to protect their nation from intervening world powers after King T'Challa's death.
The movie will premiere in theaters on Friday, November 11.