Director Ryan Coogler reveals the original plot of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which includes a touching story for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler shares a detailed synopsis of the original story for the film involving Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa. Marking the end of Phase 4 of the MCU, Coogler’s sequel to 2018’s Black Panther was met with mostly positive reviews from audiences and critics alike. The film sees Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Ramonda (Angela Bassett) attempting to deal with their grief following the death of Wakanda’s King T’Challa while also dealing with the arrival of Namor (Tenoch Huerta). The film was originally announced before Boseman’s tragic death in 2020, and the actor’s passing changed the story of the film, with Shuri taking up the mantle of Black Panther.
Although Coogler previously provided a taste of what the original story for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was, the director now goes into detail regarding what they had planned. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Coogler breaks down how T’Challa’s journey as a father would play out and the much larger role they had planned for Toussaint, his son. Check out Coogler’s full comment below:
“It was, “What are we going to do about the Blip?” [In Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” T’Challa is one of billions of people who suddenly vanish, only to be brought back by the Avengers five years later.] That was the challenge. It was absolutely nothing like what we made. It was going to be a father-son story from the perspective of a father, because the first movie had been a father-son story from the perspective of the sons.
“In the script, T’Challa was a dad who’d had this forced five-year absence from his son’s life. The first scene was an animated sequence. You hear Nakia [T’Challa’s love interest, played by Lupita Nyong’o] talking to Toussaint [the couple’s child, introduced in “Wakanda Forever” in a post-credits sequence]. 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.
“Then it cuts ahead three years and he’s essentially co-parenting. We had some crazy scenes in there for Chad, man. 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.”
Why Wakanda Forever Was The Perfect Ending To MCU Phase 4
Although clearly not the original vision that Coogler had for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the movie was still a fitting end to Phase 4. Officially kicking off what has been dubbed the “Multiverse Saga,” Phase 4 has been met with a mixed response from fans, many of whom claim that the movies and shows lack the same focus and cohesive forward momentum of previous phases. Movies that come at the end of phases, like 2012’s The Avengers, have the difficult job of feeling like the end of one chapter while still setting the stage for what’s to come. This task was made even more monumental for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever due to Boseman’s death.
As is made clear in the movie’s first moments, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is, first and foremost, a tribute to Boseman and his powerful impact on the MCU and as an actor more generally. Shuri refuses to accept and fully process her grief at her brother’s loss and eventually comes to channel it into rage during her final fight with Namor. In the film’s final moments, however, she embraces her feelings. By accepting her grief, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever closes a particular chapter of Shuri’s life and paves the way for the future, which is reinforced by her becoming the new Wakandan hero. What’s more, Ramonda’s death also represents the end of an era for Wakanda, with Winston Duke’s M’Baku taking the throne by the end of the film.
In addition to feeling very much like the end of a story, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also introduces elements that will continue to play a role in the MCU. The post-credits introduction of Toussaint affirms that T’Challa’s legacy will live on and speaks to the movie’s themes of rebirth. The introduction of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), aka Ironheart, also represents a fairly significant development, with the character slated to be Iron Man’s successor. It remains to be seen how Toussaint, Ironheart, and Shuri’s Black Panther will fit into the MCU moving forward, but Coogler’s sequel represents a major turning point, capping off what has otherwise proven to be a somewhat rocky start to the Multiverse Saga.
Source: The New York Times