The world is going crazy for Black Panther and it's not hard to see why. However, with the movie now in theaters, The Empire Film Podcast recently caught up with director Ryan Coogler to discuss spoilers and the filmmaker shed some light on what would have been an alternate ending for Marvel's latest.
However, there's a twist of sorts; we've actually all already seen Black Panther's alternate ending!
"It was [almost the ending]. We played with a lot of different ways to end it. We went back and forth about the U.N., and we had a version where it was the U.N. before the scenes in Oakland at the end. But we really kind of settled on how do we want the movie to end? And it came back to that symmetry, and it came back to the most moving version of it. That’s what we were asking ourselves, ‘Who’s more moved emotionally, that kid or the people sitting in the U.N.?’ Who is that a bigger deal to for T’Challa to walk in, who’s more connected to him?"
As for why Coogler decided to make the movie's original ending a mid-credits scene, he added:
"As a kid, growing up, when you see somebody who looks like an older version of you doing something awesome, it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ That’s kind of what that moment… We kind of went with the less distilled emotion, and the U.N. makes sense afterwards for where Wakanda could be going in the future of this universe."
It's easy to see where the director is coming from, especially as that final scene with T'Challa and the youngster from Oakland was a powerful way to end the movie. The mid-credits scene, meanwhile, was effective in teasing Wakanda's future and setting the stage for the country to take a larger role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe moving forward. So, what about that after-credits scene with Bucky?
Before Black Panther was released, many fans assumed that the former Winter Soldier would show up to help T'Challa battle Erik Killmonger but it never happened. So, why was he absent from the story?
"[A Bucky scene] was something that was always—it was a Shuri thing, because in our world we kind of figured that Bucky Barnes would be her assignment. We kind of drop the hint at that when they bring Ross in and she’s like, ‘Oh another one.’ So we dropped hints in there, but what we kind of decided was that her cracking his mental code, if Shuri’s as smart as she is, that wouldn’t really be a big problem.
"But Bucky would have horrible PTSD, he would need spiritual guidance. The last thing he would need to do is jump into that Civil War, and so that was kind of the thought process there. And it could be potentially problematic if it’s a bunch of Africans fighting and you bring in a White dude, he comes in shootin’ people (laughs). We were aware of that. Bucky’s not trained to neutralize people peacefully, he’s an assassin…"
We will, of course, see Bucky back in action in Avengers: Infinity War so he'll no doubt be fighting fit by then. What do you guys think of Coogler's comments? As always, share your thoughts down below.