The director of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, opened up about the profound effect Boseman’s untimely passing had on the production of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel. Having already planned to make the sequel with star Chadwick Boseman, Ryan Coogler losing his star to colon cancer in 2020 made him consider walking away from the film industry altogether. “I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,'” he said.
‘Black Panther’ was more than just another success for the MCU. It had a significant cultural impact on audiences around the globe, grossing over $1 billion worldwide and earning the franchise its first and only Best Picture Academy Award nomination. The pressure to make a successful follow-up became far greater without Boseman being physically there for it. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another ‘Black Panther’ movie, because it hurt a lot,” Coogler said. “I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?'”
What eventually convinced Coogler to move forward with ‘Wakanda Forever’ was not any one executive at Disney or Marvel Studios, but the memories of Boseman’s own words and honouring the legacy of King T’Challa that allowed him to push ahead. “I was poring over a lot of our conversations that we had, towards what I realized was the end of his life,” Coogler continued. “I decided that it made more sense to keep going.”
Boseman’s absence was felt by the entire cast when the sequel went into production. Letitia Wright, who plays T’Challa’s sister Shuri, expressed her struggle to push on without her on-screen brother at her side. “It was hard for me to imagine being on set without my brother,” Wright said. “It was something I was battling for months. The confidence that [Ryan Coogler] felt that he heard Chadwick just give him that gentle push forward, to continue. And the way that Ryan would express that it was bigger than all of us, and Chad would have wanted us to continue. That really encouraged me.”
Coogler is reportedly a frontrunner to direct Marvel’s ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ for the closing of the MCU’s Phase 6.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will debut in theatres on Nov. 11, with possibly an earlier date for Nigerian audiences.