Warning: There are spoilers ahead for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever!
Last month, director Ryan Coogler revealed he had already written a Black Panther 2 sequel for Chadwick Boseman before he passed away. That’s why Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was reconceived as a tribute to both Boseman and the character he played, T’Challa/Black Panther. But in a new interview with The New York Times, Coogler noted that Black Panther 2‘s original story would have been a father and son adventure with T’Challa and his child with Nakia, Toussaint.
“We had some crazy scenes in there for Chad,” said Coogler. “Our code name for the movie was ‘Summer Break,’ and the movie was about a summer that the kid spends with his dad. For his eighth birthday, they do a ritual where they go out into the bush and have to live off the land. But something happens and T’Challa has to go save the world with his son on his hip. That was the movie.”
Coogler also reiterated that Namor (Tenoch Huerta) “was always the antagonist.” He went on to say that “[T’Challa] 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.”
RELATED: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Editor Discusses What Got Cut
Because T’Challa was among half of Earth’s population who was snapped out of existence by Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, he missed the birth of his son. According to Coogler, Nakia originally married another man in the five year gap before T’Challa’s return. He also explained how the film would have handled the time gap.
“The first scene was an animated sequence,” noted Coogler. “You hear Nakia talking to Toussaint. She says, ‘Tell me what you know about your father.’ You realize that he doesn’t know his dad was the Black Panther. He’s never met him, and Nakia is remarried to a Haitian dude. Then, we cut to reality and it’s the night that everybody comes back from the Blip. You see T’Challa meet the kid for the first time.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s mid-credits scene seems to be setting Toussaint up to be Black Panther in the future. However, it’s unknown if the Marvel multiverse will allow Toussaint to meet a version of his father down the line.
What do you think about the original plan for the sequel? Let us know in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Black Panther Legends
We are also a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. This affiliate advertising program also provides a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Cartoon Corporation does not have permission to steal our content.
Black Panther 2’s Original
