We’ll never know for sure what it would have been like to see Chadwick Boseman return as T’Challa in Black Panther 2, but some new details about the original script for the sequel shed some light on what fans could have expected. Prior to the sudden passing of Boseman in 2020, Ryan Coogler had written a screenplay that featured Boseman back in the lead role as T’Challa. Sadly, Boseman died before he got the chance to read it, and the script was tossed to a new story could be written around T’Challa’s absence.
In a new interview with the New York Times, however, Coogler opened up some more on the original screenplay. He explains how the sequel would have acknowledged the Blip with T’Challa returning after a 5-year absence, at which point he’d be meeting his son for the first time. Much of the film would have focused on T’Challa co-parenting and building a relationship with his son, serving as a bit of a father-son story that was completely different in tone from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As Coogler says:
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Black Panther 2 Would Have Had T’Challa and Son Saving the World
Coogler goes on to add how the plot of the sequel would have essentially followed T’Challa and his son on a journey together to save the world after coming under threat while spending time together in the wilderness. While it’s unclear how the other returning character would have played into this plot, Coogler emphasizes how the father-son relationship was the heart of the unmade version of the sequel.
As we know now, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever acknowledges Boseman’s death by explaining that T’Challa had passed away after the events of the first film. In the sequel, the leaders of Wakanda continue on, fighting to protect their nation while honoring T’Challa. It featured many returning stars from the original film, such as Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, and more.
