Ryan Coogler, the Black Panther screenwriter and director, almost quit filmmaking after the death of Chadwick Boseman.
“I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,’” Coogler told Entertainment Weekly in an interview. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’”
Following Boseman’s death in August 2020, Coogler recalled all the moments he shared with Boseman and how much the Marvel character meant to him.
“I was poring over a lot of our conversations that we had, towards what I realized was the end of his life,” Coogler added. “I decided that it made more sense to keep going.”
Now, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a reality and the film was made in honor of Boseman’s legacy with the director mentioning that they never thought about recasting T’Challa.
“It’s my job as a filmmaker to do things that I have personal integrity with,” Coogler said. “If I don’t believe in what I’m doing, I’m going to have a hard time getting other people to do their best work. For them to do their best work, they have to believe in it. At the end of the day, the choices we make have to feel truthful to me. When filmmakers make things that don’t feel truthful to them, you can feel it. And I will argue that those projects don’t have a shot at working.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11.
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