A legend is being remembered. Two years after Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death, filmmaker Ryan Coogler reflects on their final moments together.
“My final communication with him was phoning to ask if he wanted to read [the screenplay] before I got remarks from the studio,” the Black Panther filmmaker, 36, remembered in the first edition of the “Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther” podcast, which was released on Thursday, November 3. Coogler said that the South Carolina native appeared “weary” during their phone call and that he and Denzel Washington had been “trying to get a touch” of Boseman for many days without success.
“I contacted him and let him know Denzel was looking for him as well. He then called me, and while we spoke, I saw that he was lying down “The podcast host Ta-Nehisi Coates, who wrote the original Black Panther comics, was addressed seriously by Coogler on Thursday. The fact that Simone (Ledward, his wife) refused to leave after he pushed her out because he didn’t want her to hear anything that would violate his NDA made him suspicious.
The Oakland, California, native recalled that Boseman was “joking and smiling” before asking about his planned wedding preparations in South Carolina and the arrival of his kid, now 2, with now-wife Zinzi Evans. Following their arrival, the Golden Globe winner chose not to read Coogler’s screenplay because he was “too exhausted.”
Coogler had intended to include Boseman’s Black Panther in the Wakanda Forever sequel and make a “deep-ish dive into this character,” but the actor’s death hampered production. Instead, the film, which hits cinemas later this month, will see Wakanda mourning the death of T’Challa while a new hero takes up the superhero mantle. To see if it can surpass the cultural phenomenon that it was will be interesting. It will be intriguing to observe how we handle it once more. Playing Ramonda, T’Challa’s mother Angela Bassett, told Us Weekly exclusively in May 2021. “It’s going to be incredible, and it’s going to pay respect and continue on that heritage.”
Coogler, for one, was taken aback when he heard the news. “I was at [my] residence. “I received a call from [my manager] Charles King,” the Creed filmmaker stated on the show on Thursday. “He called to inform me, but because I didn’t want to believe him, I didn’t want to accept it. I then contacted Denzel, and we chatted and thought it was just a rumor. I then texted Chad because you go through that denial.”
Coogler, who remade Wakanda Forever as a memorial to his late buddy, said on Thursday that Boseman had been battling cancer throughout their partnership. Chad “was extraordinary in every regard, even the way he lived and died,” he said, adding that. “If my partner was able to do all of that while we were filming the first film, I can’t give up now; I’m able to continue. Looking back, I know that my man was dying. This is only discomfort; we must keep going.”