Ryan Coogler’s original “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”The script contained some grief. But instead of the grief of losing King T’Challah entirely with the too-early death of actor Chadwick Boseman, it centered on T’Challah’s loss of time in the five-year blip.
“The tonal shift, I will say, was less of a shift than in [casting],”In an interview, Coogler stated that he was proud to be associated with Inverse.
T’Challah vanished during “The Blip” brought upon half the world’s population by Thanos, and had Bosman been alive to reprise his role as the Black Panther, Coogler envisioned the King of Wakanda grasping to return to normal after his absence during “The Blip.”
“The tone was going to be similar,” Coogler said. “The character was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after being gone for five years. As a man with so much responsibility to so many, coming back after a forced five years absence, that’s what the film was tackling. He was grieving time he couldn’t get back. Grief was a big part of it.”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” received a rewrite following Boseman’s death — after which Feige stated there would be no recasting of the character since it was much too soon. Joe Robert Cole, Coogler’s co-writer, helped to revise the protagonist and plot. Namor the Submariner (Tenoch Huerta) remained as the antagonist.
“There were other characters, for sure, that we considered including,” Coogler said. “Namor was always there.”
The film’s final version begins with the onscreen death of T’Challa, reflecting Bosman’s passing, which leads the Kingdom of Wakanda — including T’Challah’s mother Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) and his smart scientist sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) — to stick to the mission of protecting the secluded nation’s invaluable supply of vibranium from external threats.
Enter Namor, who emerges from the depths in the sequel film, which finds Wakanda in a war with Namor’s underwater kingdom Talokan. “Wakanda Forever”The Black Panther seeks a new Black Panther that will wear the mantle, while also paying tribute to Boseman’s legacy.
“Who the protagonist was, the flaws of the protagonist, what the protagonist was dealing with in their journey,” Coogler said. “All of that stuff had to be different due to us losing him and the decisions that we made about moving forward.”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”November 11th, in theatres