How Ryan Coogler Honored Chadwick Boseman in Wakanda Forever

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Following up on one of the greatest superhero movies of all time has been difficult in and of itself. black panther Writer-director Ryan Coogler has considered leaving the Marvel Cinematic Universe entirely.

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“I was shocked,” Coogler, 36, says from Los Angeles, recalling his early reaction to Boseman’s tragic death in 2020 and his role as King T’Challa/Black Panther at Marvel. I remembered a few weeks before I was due to perform again. follow up.

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“I didn’t like how I felt, I didn’t like how it hurt.

Originally conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, the 2018 solo introduction to the main character on the big screen was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and became a global box office hit. . The stand-alone story, set in the fictional African country of Wakanda, tells the story of a young king forced to wear his suit of immortal vibranium his black his panther following the assassination of his father. fascinated the

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After becoming the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly black cast, Coogler’s continuation would have seen Boseman’s T’Challa deal with the fallout from the events of 2019. Avengers: Endgame.

Instead, Coogler and returning co-writer Joe Robert Cole rewrote the script after Boseman died of colon cancer. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (on Friday) after Marvel chose not to recast the part.

A day after the movie’s Hollywood premiere, Coogler got his big break in 2013 Fruitvale Station before continuing to write and direct in 2015 Creedclaims that his remarks about wanting to quit filmmaking were merely heartbreak.

“I was able to forget that feeling and come back to my senses. I was able to observe the lessons,” Coogler says softly.

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Wakanda Forever It is the final installment of Phase 4 of the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe. T’Challa’s homeland finds itself threatened after the king’s death by global powers seeking to harness Vibranium for their own military gain.

How Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright), Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Mbaku (Winston Duke) mourn their loss and restore their kingdom looking for , the malevolent underwater mutant Namor (Tenoch Huerta) emerges as a threat to both the nation and their brand new ally, Lili Williams aka Ironheart (Dominic Thorne).

The result is a sprawling entry that pays tribute to Boseman while paving the way for bold new futures for the story’s other heroes, including characters who belonged to Fox before Disney acquired the studio in 2017. .

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“I am grateful for the opportunity to work with him, and we are all grateful,” Coogler said. post media To make a sequel without Boseman.

In a recent Saturday night video call, Coogler explained how the new film honors Boseman, why he chose Namor to play the villain, and how much attention he’s given to the intense fan scrutiny that comes with directing a Marvel movie. We talked about whether

Wakanda Forever It is an emotional and thrilling watch. How did you and the cast set out to honor Chadwick’s legacy in this film?

“Through his work. I wanted to honor Chad by doing honest work. A piece that was ambitious. A piece that felt true. A piece that felt inspired. We wanted to honor him through the way we met him.” He was a man who worked all his life, and the only way I ever met him was by working with him, so the best way to honor him is to do something sincere to us. It was about making.”

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Namor is a very interesting choice as the movie’s villain and antagonist. How did you get comfortable with him?

“The choice to have Namor as the antagonist in this film was fairly straightforward. Pop, his conflict with T’Challa and Shuri, and his conflict with Wakanda as a whole, is one of the more interesting things to read in (comics) because it’s contractually (in the first Black Panther) said it can’t be used. It was a character I had in mind, and the studio settled on a movie with Killmonger and Klaue as antagonists, so they thought it was a great idea, so they went in that direction. What’s interesting about him is that he’s one of the oldest (comic book) characters, he’s been around since the 1930s, but strangely enough there’s been no representation of him in film or television. It was a rare opportunity and I didn’t want to miss it.”

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I enjoy reading about Easter eggs on Reddit. Do you go to the internet and look up what people are writing?

“I don’t. My personal relationship with the internet is that it’s a double-edged sword. One is positive reinforcement and motivation, the other is unhealthy for creators…especially when it comes to delivering work.” It can be dangerous to go in there and read stuff like that in the process of perfecting it… but did you see some cool stuff there? .”

Theories abound that people are trying to draw connections to other Marvel characters… so name them and tell us what comes to your mind: Doctor Doom.

“He’s one of the big guys. But unlike Namor, there have been several different interpretations of him in the movies. So I think that’s what got me most excited about Namor. Doom is a little different, but he’s an incredible character, and he’s often on lists of favorite characters overall, not just villains. I understand that you want to see

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever It opens in theaters on Friday, November 11th.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

twitter: @Mark Daniel