BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER Director Reveals Sequel Originally Dealt With T'Challa's Struggles As King

Chadwick Boseman passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer, forcing Marvel Studios to go back to the drawing board with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The script had been written with the expectation that the actor would reprise the role of T'Challa, and the decision was ultimately made to not recast the Avenger. 

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, director Ryan Coogler explained that his and Joe Robert Cole's screenplay was set to focus on T'Challa's evolution as Wakanda's King.

"The script we wrote before Chadwick passed was very much rooted in T’Challa’s perspective," he says. "It was a massive movie but also simultaneously a character study that delved deeply into his psyche and situation."

Rather than find a new actor to play T'Challa, the screenplay was rewritten to tell the story from another character's point of view, with a different Wakandan becoming the MCU's Black Panther. "The Black Panther has existed in Wakanda for centuries, so the notion of someone else picking up the mantle didn’t seem inorganic," producer Nate Moore reveals.

"But once that had to become a reality, then it was, 'OK, what makes the most sense for the story? Who actually makes the most sense to take this thing on?'" he continues. "All of the characters in the film have a different idea of who should don the mantle and why."

There's still a lot of disappointment among fans that T'Challa has been killed off in the MCU, with many feeling it would have been a better tribute to Boseman for the character to live on. 

Shuri is expected to become the new Back Panther, which is very much in line with the comic books, though there have also been rumblings about the mantle being passed on to a third hero before all is said and done. We'll just have to wait and see, though M'Baku remains a fan-favourite choice. 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives in theaters on November 11.