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Ryan Coogler has opened up about the original script he wrote for Black Panther 2 before its star, Chadwick Boseman, died from cancer in the summer of 2020.
During a new installment of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Coogler explained that Boseman was too sick to read the script by the time he’d finished writing it, but that he’d put a lot into that version of the Marvel sequel because he’d gotten to know Boseman better as a performer.
Coogler, who went on to make an updated MCU entry that explored the grief following Boseman’s passing through the eyes of its characters, also discussed the plot of the scrapped script, which he “loved” but featured a different version of Namor than the one we got in his completed film, Wakanda Forever.
“The big thing about the script was that it was this thing called the Ritual of Eight,” Coogler told host Josh Horowitz. “When a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father. Amongst those eight days, they have to go into the bush without any tools. And the prince has to listen and do everything that’s asked of him by his father, but the rule is, for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question. And the father has to answer.”
“So during the course of those eight days, Namor launches an attack,” Coogler added. “So that was what the movie was. He had to deal with somebody, and it was a different version of Namor in that script, but he had to deal with someone who was, like, insanely dangerous. But, because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time. So while he was engaging in negotiations and fights, his son had to be right there, or else they’d have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken.”
The director also spoke about making his 2025 hit horror movie Sinners and his return to Marvel for Black Panther 3, which is eyeing a June 2026 production start.
“I’m in it for my heart. I got this movie on my heart,” he said, while acknowledging that some people might be surprised by the move. “Yeah, from the outside looking in, you might say, ‘Man, why this fucking dude making another one of those?’ But that’s totally fine, that question makes sense. And it’s my job as a filmmaker to show why.”
Black Panther 3 is expected to be released in 2028, following Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
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