Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman was a generational talent, and we lost him too soon (the actor passed away in 2020 at 43 years old following a battle with colon cancer). While his work stretched beyond the MCU, it's T'Challa he's likely to be best remembered for playing.
Talking about his new movie, Sinners, director Ryan Coogler has addressed the Avengers: Infinity War star's commitment to his craft.
He started by explaining what a huge impact Boseman's death had on both himself and the actor's Black Panther co-star and Sinners lead, Michael B. Jordan.
"Out of all of my actors, Chad’s death actually hit [Michael B. Jordan] the hardest," Coogler recalls in the video below. "Chad was older than us, he was quite a bit older than us, even though he looked like he was the same age. He was a fully baked man from the South. He was an old school man’s man and compared to that dude when we worked together bro, me and Mike was kids."
"Chad changed my life. He was the kind of teacher who you never knew you was getting a lesson when he taught," the filmmaker continued. "It was all by example and what he gave me and Michael was patience. He moved at an old-school pace and he took his time. He was always early. He was that type of dude."
"And Mike will tell you this, I told him man, I said, 'Hey bro, what would Chad do in this ['Sinners'] role? If he had this role what would he do?' Because Chad never broke action."
Providing an example, Coogler reflected on Boseman's decision to keep his T'Challa accent throughout the entirety of the Black Panther shoot.
"He was talking in an African accent. Disney execs came to see us on ‘Panther.’ It was week two and they pulled up and it was the T’Challa accent and they were freaked out," he shared. "I was like, ‘Don’t be freaked out. He’s working, man. He don’t turn it off until we wrap.'"
The expectation now is that the MCU will get a new T'Challa (likely an adult Toussaint) in either Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. From there, he'll take centre stage in Black Panther 3, a movie we know Coogler has already tapped Denzel Washington to star in.
During a separate interview with Deadline, Coogler explained why it was important to him to make Sinners before the Black Panther threequel:
"It is interesting for you to ask where [Sinners] came from, and timing it before Black Panther 3. It was my realization that I had been on this path of what I could make and what I wanted to make. And realizing they had all been in the service of stories that were outside of myself."
"But I still haven’t brought something that was just me. And how funny is it that when I say, Hey, I’m making a horror movie, and people are surprised. But if you know me, I love those movies. If I had to reckon with the fact that the audience doesn’t truly know me. And I got scared that I would look up and be 50 and would still be in that situation. And by then, I might not have anything to say."
"So the movie was made because I had to make it right now. And with the people that I wanted to make it with, it had to happen now. Or if not, it wouldn’t. I feared that. And that was why now."
Black Panther 3 doesn't have a confirmed release date but is expected to be released during the Mutant Saga.