Ryan Coogler Reveals Original Black Panther 2 Idea, Says Chadwick Boseman Was 'Too Sick' to Read Script

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According to Coogler, the second movie would have focused on Boseman's T'Challa and the character's 8-year-old son.

Ryan Coogler has revealed the original plan for Black Panther 2, sharing what was in the script before star Chadwick Boseman's death.

Boseman appeared as T'Challa in Avengers: Civil War, Black Panther and both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame before he died following a secret, four-year battle with colon cancer. He was 43.

Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, Coogler -- who wrote and directed both Black Panther movies -- shared what he was hoping for in the second film, before Boseman's death changed everything.

"The big thing about the script was a thing called the Ritual of 8 where, [when] a prince is 8 years old, he has to go spend 8 days in the bush with his father," explained Coogler. "The rule is for those 8 days the prince can ask the father any question and the father has to answer."

"During the course of those 8 days, Namor launches an attack," he continued, "and it was a different version of Namor in that script, but he had to deal with someone who's insanely dangerous, but because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time … or else they'd have to violate this ritual that had never been broken."

"I loved that script. I put so much into that version of the movie because I felt like I had gotten to know Chadwick as a performer,” he added. "I threw a lot at Chad in the first Panther, but I realized I was just scratching the surface."

"It was insane, and Chadwick was going to kill it, but life goes as it goes," he added, explaining that he had finished a version of the script and "hit [Boseman] up to read it." Unfortunately, said Coogler, "he was too sick to read, bro," adding, "That was kind of how the timing was."

The script would undergo a major overhaul, instead focusing on T'Challa's sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) taking on the mantle of Black Panther following her brother's death. The movie still included Namor (Tenoch Huerta) as the villain, who launched an all-out attack on Wakanda, killing Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett).

The film ended with the big reveal that T'Challa had fathered a son with Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), who was raising the boy in secrecy in Haiti.

Coogler is confirmed to return for a third film.