Ryan Coogler explains why he could never recast Black Panther

With Wakanda for Ever: Black PantherMarvel Entertainment released the first episode in its series of deep dives behind the scenes about making the movie. The film will be available to view in theatres Nov. 11. First episode of Wakanda Forever, The Official Black Panther PodcastThis event was hosted by an essayist and veteran Black PantherTa-Nehisi Coates is a comics writer. He begins with an emotional wallop. A personal recollection of what the Black Panther movie meant to Coates and an initial conversation between Coates and Ryan Coogler who were deep in editing. Wakanda ForeverWhen this episode was taped.

In future episodes of Coogler, which will begin rolling out in January 2013, Coogler returns. This episode focuses primarily on the difficult process of finding a solution. Black PantherThe sequel didn’t have Chadwick, Boseman who, at the age of 43, died from cancer.

In the months leading to, we discussed in detail the emotional problems of making the film with Boseman. Wakanda ForeverBut the podcast takes it further with an especially raw explanation by Coogler. Coates was a close friend from Howard University and he cried during the talk. Coogler explains that a director’s main job, as he sees it, is to convince other people to believe in their ideas and their truth — and in those terms, Boseman was even more of a steward for this character, and this world, than it initially appeared.

Specifically, he talks about Boseman originating the T’Challa character in Civil War Captain AmericaIt was almost two years ago Black Panther’s release, and how that involved “difficult conversations” with the Marvel brass about how Civil War would shape T’Challa’s homeland, Wakanda. Coogler doesn’t get into the specific pushback Boseman received from Marvel, but he credits the actor’s vision as a major reason the character came to life — both on a creative level, as the movie was planned, and on a practical level, as the two men worked together and Coogler worried about the pressure to make the film great.

Photo: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios

In Coogler’s telling, this is ultimately why recasting T’Challa wasn’t considered a viable option, even though he had already written a script with a tight focus on the character, and completed it just weeks before Boseman’s death. The director had to be able to sell his truth to his coworkers, and the truth they were dealing with, though sad, was unavoidable: “Heroes, great men… die.” Essentially, Boseman felt the journey of Black Panther and Wakanda as a whole was his job, so Coogler felt a responsibility to continue it for him.

It’s a compelling conversation, in large part because Coogler can be heard renegotiating the roles of actors and directors as he makes his way through the process of re-envisioning Wakanda ForeverAs both a memorial and as a way forward. It seems he considers Black Panther Boseman’s movie as much as his — and maybe, even without Boseman, that’s true of the sequel, too.

This is the first episode Wakanda Forever – The Official Black Panther PodcastIt is also available via Spotify and other podcasting platforms. According to Marvel, “Subsequent episodes will be available weekly in January 2023, celebrating the five-year anniversary of the first Black Panther film.”