Two years after the death of Chadwick Boseman, “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler is looking back at his final conversation with the late beloved actor.
Boseman, who starred in the 2018 Marvel blockbuster as the iconic T’Challa/Black Panther, died in August 2020 at the age of 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer.
“My last conversation with him was calling to ask if he wanted to read [the script] before I got notes from the studio,” he said during the debut episode of Marvel’s official podcast for the film titled, “Wakanda Forever,” which aired on Thursday.
“That was the last time we spoke. He passed maybe a couple of weeks after I finished,” he continued, referring to the script for the film’s sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Coogler recalled that the Emmy winner seemed “tired” during their phone conversation.
“I could tell he was laying down when we were talking,” he said, adding that Boseman’s wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, was also present during their call. “He kicked Simone out because he told her he didn’t want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with his NDA, and she didn’t want to leave, so I could tell something was up.”
Although the sequel’s script was completed before the actor’s death, Boseman declined Coogler’s offer to give it a glimpse, telling him over the phone that “he didn’t wanna get in the way of what direction the [Marvel] studio might have.”
However, Coogler revealed, “I found out later that he was too tired to read anything.”
Coogler added that, at the time, Boseman was planning his wedding to Ledward and said the Marvel star “asked about my kid” because he had missed the baby shower.
The filmmaker then detailed his devastation when he learned about Boseman’s death weeks later. “I was at my house,” he recalled. “I got a call from my manager Charles King.”
“He called and told me, and I didn’t want to believe it, so I called Denzel, and I spoke to him, and we thought it might be a rumor, so I texted Chad, I was in denial,” Coogler explained, referring to Denzel Washington, who was a producer on “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Boseman’s last movie.
“Everything about Chad was unique,” Coogler added. “How he lived and how he died was unique.”
Aside from playing the Marvel superhero, Boseman was also renowned for his roles in films like “42,” “Get on Up,” “Da 5 Bloods” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” for which he received a posthumous Oscar nomination.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, director Coogler opened up about working on the long-awaited follow-up without Boseman.
“It’s difficult,” Coogler said at the time. ”You’ve got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop.”
Instead of recasting Boseman’s titular character, the film’s writers, Coogler and Joe Robert Cole decided to include T’Challa’s death in the sequel’s plot.
The upcoming film will see the country of Wakanda grieve the loss of its leader T’Challa as a new hero takes on the superhero mantle.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is slated to hit the big screen on Nov. 11.