"Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler has admitted that he almost quit filmmaking after the death of the film's star, Chadwick Boseman.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Coogler opened up about the overwhelming grief he experienced when Boseman died after a private battle with colon cancer in August, 2020. The loss left him questioning his future and whether he wanted to still be involved in the industry.
"I was at a point when I was like, 'I'm walking away from this business,' " Coogler said. "I didn't know if I could make another movie period [or] another 'Black Panther' movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, 'Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?' "
In the weeks that ensued, Coogler said he found himself going through footage of himself with Boseman. Revisiting those memories helped him rediscover the passion and plans he had for the Wakanda kingdom and its possible narratives.
"I was poring over a lot of conversations that we had, towards what I realized was the end of his life," Coogler continued. "I decided that it made more sense to keep going."
Boseman took on the titular character in the 2018 blockbuster and soon became synonymous with his role as T'Challa. When he died, Marvel chose not to replace him in the sequel, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever." Instead, his character was killed off.
This was confirmed in the new trailer for the upcoming film Monday, which shows scenes of a funeral procession then hints at T'Challa's sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), taking on the Black Panther identity.
The trailer was met with some resistance from fans who voiced renewed calls to recast Boseman's character, but as Marvel head Kevin Feige previously explained, the focus had shifted to telling the stories of other characters who were introduced into the original film.
"The conversations were entirely about, yes, what do we do next?" Feige previously told Empire about moving on from Boseman's death. "And how could the legacy of Chadwick — and what he had done to help Wakanda and the Black Panther become these incredible, aspirational, iconic ideas — continue? That's what it was all about."