Ryan Coogler Opens Up About Filming ‘Black Panther 2’ Without Chadwick Boseman: He Wouldn’t Have Wanted Us to Stop
Ryan Coogler Opens Up About Filming ‘Black Panther 2’ Without Chadwick Boseman: He Wouldn’t Have Wanted Us to Stop
Ryan Coogler is sharing his thoughts on how the late Chadwick Boseman would potentially feel about Black Panther 2. During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, American director Ryan Coogler opened up about working on Black Panther 2 without his friend Chadwick Boseman.
The 34-year-old director also shared that he believes Chadwick Boseman would want him to keep pushing. He said,
“It’s difficult. You’ve got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective. Black Panther, that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired.”
He continued and said that while filming the first Black Panther Chadwick Boseman was a true team player and there for everybody on set.
“On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good. If we cut his coverage, he would stick around and read lines off camera [to help other actors with their performances]. So it would be harder for me to stop. Truthfully. I’d feel him yelling at me, like, ‘What are you doing?’ So you keep going.”
As previously reported, Chadwick Boseman, unfortunately, died of colon cancer in August of last year. He was 43-years-old at the time of his passing. During his interview, Ryan Coogler confirmed that he, like many others in the film industry, wasn’t aware that Chadwick Boseman was sick. He said,
“I didn’t know what was going on. I knew what he wanted me to know. I miss him in every way that you could miss somebody, as a friend, as a collaborator. And it sucks because I love watching movies, and I don’t get to watch the next thing he would have made. So it’s grief on a lot of levels, but then, it’s a deep sense of gratitude because I can close my eyes and hear his voice.”
Marvel has previously announced that they would not recast the Black Panther role for the upcoming film. Black Panther 2 will reportedly be released next summer on July 8, 2022.
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