Ryan Coogler Reveals Original Plans for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa in ‘Black Panther’ Sequel

By MK

December 29, 2025

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Five years after Chadwick Boseman‘s tragic passing, Ryan Coogler details what he originally planned for the Black Panther sequel. Chadwick Boseman passed away on August 28, 2020, at the age of 43, following a private battle with colon cancer. His death shocked the entertainment industry, with a massive outpouring of love for the iconic actor. His death left an immeasurable impact on the MCU, as Boseman’s T’Challa was positioned to be one of the new leads of the franchise, and writer and director Coogler was forced to rework the sequel for Black Panther, later titled Wakanda Forever, from scratch.

Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast (via Comic Book Movie), Coogler details his original plans for Black Panther‘s sequel. Coogler revealed the script saw T’Challa and his eight-year-old son, who was born when T’Challa blinked away for five years, go on a Wakandan ritual to form a bond that coincides with Namor’s attack on Wakanda. Coogler said:

“It was like a 180-page draft chock-full of them. The big thing about the script was this thing called the ‘Ritual of Eight,’ where when a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father and amongst them, and amongst those eight days, they have to go into the bush without any tools. The prince has to listen to everything that’s asked of him by his father. But the rule is that for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question, and the father has to answer. During the course of those eight days, Namor launches an attack. He had to deal with somebody who was like insanely dangerous, but because of this ritual, his son had to be like joined at his hip the whole time. He was engaging in negotiations, fights, and his son had to be right there, or he’d have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken. That was what the movie was. [With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever], I got a chance to make a movie about women. I love that movie so much.”

Unfortunately, Coogler revealed Boseman never got to read the treatment due to his health, saying:

“I finished it, and I hit him up to read it. He was too sick to read it, bro. That was kind of how the timing was. He was at a place where it wasn’t gonna happen…One of the strongest people was having his strength taken from him by this disease. It damaged me, bro. Probably irreparably, to be honest with you. But I love that script. I put so much into that version of the movie. I felt like I had gotten to know Chadwick as a performer. I threw a lot at Chad in the first Panther, but I realised I was just scratching the surface. Now I know what he can do. I’m going to push him to the limit.

Chadwick Boseman Was Intended To Be the Face of the MCU’s Future

Disney

Ryan Coogler had mentioned in the past that Black Panther 2 was originally conceived as a story about T’Challa and his son, continuing the father-son themes from the first Black Panther film. While the Namor attacking Wakanda storyline is still present, it is now Shuri (Letitia Wright) who is left to defend her home. However, an element of Coogler’s original intent remains as Wakanda Forever‘s post-credit scene reveals that T’Challa and Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) did have a son named Toussaint, whose Wakandan name is revealed to be T’Challa in honor of his deceased father and a loving homage to actor Chadwick Boseman.

Following the $700 million domestic gross and a $1.3 billion worldwide box office and becoming the first superhero movie nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, Black Panther was seen as Marvel’s crown jewel franchise with Boseman as its star. The original plan seemed to be to position Boseman’s T’Challa as one of the new leads of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. However, Boseman’s tragic death caused a major ripple into those plans, and even more so than the firing of Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, which led to the MCU’s Multiverse Saga losing its anchor.

Since Boseman’s passing, the role of T’Challa has essentially been retired by Marvel, with the studio choosing not to recast him. Shuri is now the new Black Panther in the MCU and will return in Avengers: Doomsday. Marvel Zombies featured T’Challa’s Black Panther, but the character never spoke. Rumors for Doomsday and Secret Wars suggest that Toussiant/T’Challa II will become the new Black Panther and allow Marvel Studios to feature a Black Panther named T’Challa without recasting Boseman. Coogler is set to return to direct Black Panther 3, which hopefully will be able to find a way to wrap up the epic family story.