'Black Panther 2' director reveals film's original plot before Chadwick Boseman's death

Weeks after the release of 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,' filmmaker and co-writer Ryan Coogler revealed the original plot of the story, which had to be changed due to the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman, who played the lead in the 2018 film 'Black Panther.'

The film, which released on November 11, starred Letitia Wright as Shuri/Black Panther. The film also featured Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke and Florence Kasumba among others.

'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' shows that T'Challa, king of Wakanda is dying from an illness that can be cured by the 'heart-shaped herb.' T'Challa's sister Shuri attempts to create the herb synthetically after it was destroyed by Erik Killmonger, but fails to do so before T'Challa succumbs.

However, that was not the original plot, according to filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole.

The film was going to be a father-son story

In an interview with the New York Times, Ryan said that the film was going to be a father-son story. Coogler explained that the film was going to be a father-son story from the perspective of a father because the first movie had been a father-son story from the perspective of the sons.

Ryan said, "In the script, T’Challa was a dad who’d had this forced five-year absence from his son’s life. The first scene was an animated sequence. You hear Nakia [T’Challa’s love interest, played by Lupita Nyong’o] talking to Toussaint [the couple’s child, introduced in “Wakanda Forever” in a post-credits sequence]. She says, “Tell me what you know about your father. You realize that he doesn’t know his dad was the Black Panther. He’s never met him, and Nakia is remarried to a Haitian dude. Then, we cut to reality and it’s the night that everybody comes back from the Blip. You see T’Challa meet the kid for the first time," added Coogler.

'Summer Break' was the code name of our movie, says Coogler

Speaking further about the film's original plot, Coogler said that they had some "crazy scenes" in there for Chadwick. Ryan said that their code name for the movie was "Summer Break" because the film was about a summer that the kid spends with his dad. 

Chadwick Boseman died in 2020

Chadwick Boseman, 43, died on August 28, 2020. The actor was battling colon cancer.