Ryan Coogler Has Revealed His Original Plans For Black Panther 2

Black Panther 2 was headed in a wildly different direction before the death of star Ryan Coogler, according to director Ryan Coogler.

We lost a star when Chadwick Boseman died of cancer in 2020. That was clear to anyone with eyes. We also, much less importantly, lost the planned sequel to Marvel‘s Black Panther, the film that put him on the map. And while we did eventually get Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in 2022, and director Ryan Coogler has gone on the huge success with the excellent period vampire flick Sinners, it’s hard not to wonder what might have been.

Well, we can wonder no more – well, we can wonder a little less, at least – as Coogler recently appeared on Josh Horowitz‘s Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he fielded a few questions about the mooted sequel – and apparently, it was gonna be a banger.

“I loved that script, bro,” Coogler told Horowitz. “I put so much into that version of the movie because I felt like I had gotten to know Chadwick as a performer.

“The big thing about the script was that it was this thing called the Ritual of Eight. When a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father. Amongst those eight days, they have to go into the bush without any tools. And the prince has to listen and do everything that’s asked of him by his father, but the rule is, for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question. And the father has to answer.”

But of course, that’s when amphibious warrior king Namor, who was already penciled in for villain duties, decides to launch an invasion of Wakanda, much as he did in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, forcing T’Challa to deal with that while also caring for his son and heir.

“So that was what the movie was,” Coogler went on. “He had to deal with somebody, and it was a different version of Namor in that script, but he had to deal with someone who was, like, insanely dangerous. But, because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time. So while he was engaging in negotiations and fights, his son had to be right there, or else they’d have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken.”

But we are still getting Black Panther 3, in whatever form that may take, with Coogler recently confirming it’s his next film.

Check out the whole interview below.