After the tragic death of Chadwick Boseman from cancer in 2020, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler had to rework the entire film, inventing what an entry in the franchise would look like without its iconic lead while paying respect to the memory of the actor and character. Now the film will center on Wakanda fending off invading forces in the wake of T’Challa’s death. But Coogler says the early versions of the story also dealt with themes of grief. In an interview with Inverse, Coogler reveals his original intentions for T’Challa in an early iteration of the sequel script.
“The character was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after being gone for five years,†he explained. “As a man with so much responsibility to so many, coming back after a forced five years absence, that’s what the film was tackling. He was grieving time he couldn’t get back. Grief was a big part of it.†Now see, if I were blipped, I wouldn’t be grieving; I’d be happy that (a) I didn’t have to live through the trauma of the blip, (b) I’d look five years younger than my peers, and (c) it’s not as if I missed a new Rihanna release during my time away. That’s what separates T’Challa from the rest of us.