Ryan Coogler’s Original Idea for Black Panther Sequel
Sometimes the greener grass on the other side isn’t just a perspective thing. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler told Inverse what the superhero sequel was going to be about before Chadwick Boseman passed away, and it sounds like a much more interesting movie.
“The tone was going to be similar,” Coogler says. “The character was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after being gone for five years. 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.”
That sounds very cool. Having T’Challa deal with the Snap (I’m not calling it that inexplicably stupid name they came up with) from the perspective of a king who’s responsible for a whole country would explore the aftermath of Infinity War and Endgame from a different angle. How would Wakanda have moved on since then? Would it even be the same society he remembered before Thanos landed? How much of the past should T’Challa rebuild, and how much of the present he never got to shape should he embrace? How do people who’ve had half their population wiped out feel about T’Challa’s openness policy? Does he even still agree with it? There are lots of places to take that story – a divided nation, palace coups from angry Wakandans, T’Challa wondering if he hurt Wakanda more than he helped it – but we’ll never see them because, instead of recasting the role, they chose to kill off T’Challa and make a movie about his sidekicks.
Some things are staying the same, though. Coogler says that the grief theme in the new version is similar to that in the other, only grieving for T’Challa instead of “loss of time.” So a potentially fascinating new story that builds on one of the most important events in the MCU while focusing on the main character was swapped for a story we’ve seen a million times already. But at least we finally get a female superhero, which I think we’re morally obligated to say every time there’s a new one. And Namor was “always the antagonist,” which would have fit with the former story as well; maybe the Snap made Wakanda vulnerable, and Namor decided to take advantage of that and wage a war he was more likely to win. That element could still be there, with T’Challa’s passing being the perceived weakness Namor sees. Dollars to doughnuts, they tie this into him hating women.
Do you think the original story of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever sounds better than the new version? Are you looking forward to the film? Is it a coincidence that we’re getting a new female Black Panther and a new female Iron Man in the same movie? Let us know in the comments, and stick around Geeks + Gamers for more Marvel missed opportunities!
