Before the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020, director Ryan Coogler had crafted an ambitious sequel to Black Panther that looked dramatically different from what ultimately became Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In a recent interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Coogler pulled back the curtain on his original vision, a personal, father‑son story featuring T’Challa and his 8‑year‑old son, set against a backdrop of Wakandan tradition and political conflict.
Coogler, who co‑wrote the original Black Panther 2 screenplay with Joe Robert Cole, revealed that the completed draft spanned roughly 180 pages and explored Wakanda’s king in a new light: not just as a ruler and warrior, but as a father.
The sequel was shaped by a unique Wakandan trial called the “Ritual of 8,” a rite of passage in which an eight‑year‑old prince must spend eight days in the wilderness with his father, allowed to ask any question while the father must answer.
“It was insane,” Coogler said of that version of the screenplay, one that mixed familial vulnerability with the epic stakes fans expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
In that original plot, T’Challa and his son were bound together by tradition just as Namor launched a powerful attack against Wakanda, forcing the king to protect both his nation and his child under extraordinary circumstances.
Coogler described the emotional core of the draft as a chance to delve deeper into T’Challa’s personal life, especially in the wake of the Blip, the five‑year absence after Avengers: Infinity War. In the original vision, T’Challa returned to find a son he had never met, and much of the narrative tension revolved around their evolving relationship.
“The big thing with the script was a thing called the Ritual of 8 where a prince is 8 years old, he must spend 8 days in the bush with his father,” Coogler said. “The rule is for those 8 days the prince can ask the father any question and the father must answer. In the course of those 8 days, Namor launches an attack… 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 violate this ritual that had never been broken.”
Despite completing the draft, Coogler said Boseman was too ill to read the script before his death. “He was at a place where it wasn’t going to happen,” Coogler noted.
After Boseman’s passing, Marvel and Coogler reworked the story entirely. Instead of centering T’Challa, Wakanda Forever shifted the focus to his sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), who rises to protect Wakanda and ultimately takes up the mantle of the Black Panther.
The film honored Boseman’s legacy and introduced T’Challa’s son, Toussaint, in a poignant end‑credits scene that paid homage to Coogler’s original ideas while charting a new path for the character’s future.
