MCU Was Supposed To Have 2 Black Panthers In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, another box office success for Marvel Studios, was intended to be very different from the film that has since become a part of the MCU. After Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020, Marvel was faced with a decision regarding the Black Panther film series: either continue with a new actor in Boseman's stead or change the plot to somehow work around T'Challa. While Marvel Studios went with option two, information about the original Black Panther sequel has been leaking out ever since. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever MCU Was Supposed To Have 2 Black Panthers operating side by side, according to Letitia Wright, who recently appeared on the Empire Movie Podcast.

“It was bittersweet. Shuri was always gonna do it. But it was gonna be done in a different way where her brother was gonna be alongside her, really explore that, like the comic books, the ways that T'Challa and Shuri would be Black Panther alongside each other and try to figure out how to defend their nation. But unfortunately, that's not how it panned out. I knew the responsibility, I knew the weight of it, but it was just bittersweet, something I struggled with a lot. But I'm extremely proud of myself, had great support.”

It has not been simple for Ryan Coogler to deliver Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to cinemas. In addition to following up on the wildly popular Black Panther, he had to reuse the plot after Chadwick Boseman passed away.

In a recent interview, Coogler spoke about the initial concept for the Black Panther sequel, which was finished and set to be released only weeks before Boseman passed away. Coogler elaborated:

"What are we going to do about the Blip? That was the challenge. It was absolutely nothing like what we made. It was going to be a father-son story from the perspective of a father because the first movie had been a father-son story from the perspective of the sons. In the script, T’Challa was a dad who’d had this forced five-year absence from his son’s life. The first scene was an animated sequence. You hear Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) talking to [the couple's child] Toussaint.

She says, 'Tell me what you know about your father.' You realize that he doesn’t know his dad was the Black Panther. He’s never met him, and Nakia is remarried to a Haitian dude. Then, we cut to reality and it’s the night that everybody comes back from the Blip. You see T’Challa meet the kid for the first time. It cuts ahead three years and he’s essentially co-parenting. Something happens and T’Challa has to go save the world with his son on his hip. That was the movie."

The sequel ultimately had a very different plot, but the way it treats T'Challa's passing and, in turn, pays tribute to Boseman's brief involvement in the franchise, has struck a chord with viewers, making it one of the highest-grossing movies of 2022. In theaters throughout the world, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still running.