Ryan Coogler Details His Last Conversation With Chadwick Boseman
Director Ryan Coogler has given an insight into his last conversation with the late Chadwick Boseman. The actor died in 2020 after complications from stage IV colon cancer that he privately battled. In an interview with Marvel’s official Black Panther podcast, the director recalled the last time he spoke with the actor in regard to the completed sequel to their blockbuster hit Black Panther. Coogler said that the Wakanda Forever script was completed prior to Boseman’s death, yet the actor decided not to read it.
“He said he didn’t wanna read it because he didn’t wanna get in the way of what direction the studio might have,” the director said. “So he was like it’s better for him to read it later. I found out later that he was too tired to read anything.”
Coogler also mentioned that he was ill when he met up with him to look at the script.
“He was sick when I met him,” Coogler said. “But looking back on it, it’s like, my man was dying. It’s a shocking thing to realize, and it’s also a thing where it’s like ‘I can’t quit.’ If he did all that while he was going through that, this is just grief. So we gotta push through.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theaters Friday (Nov. 11) and ahead of its release as Coogler has mentioned Boseman’s character T’Challa will not be played by another actor.
“He was T’Challa before [Captain America:] Civil War in a way, in his mind,” Coogler said. “And I’m sure there’s a lot of actors like that out there like that. But they wasn’t Chad.”
After multiple teasers have since been released, fans suggest that T’Challa’s sister Shuri (played by Letitia Wright) will most likely become the next Black Panther. Take a look at the latest trailer for the highly-anticipated film below:
