Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been another cinematic hit for Marvel Studios, but it is a movie that was meant to be much different from the version that has become part of the MCU. The death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 gave Marvel a choice to make about the Black Panther franchise; either continue with a new actor in Boseman’s place or rewrite the story to navigate around T’Challa in some way. While Marvel Studios chose the second route, details of the original version of the Black Panther sequel have continued to emerge. Letitia Wright recently told Empire Movie Podcast how Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was originally going to end up with two Black Panthers working side by side.

“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.”

Related: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Breaks Box Office Record It Should Never Have Been Able To

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Was Originally About T’Challa and His Son

Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa in Black Panther
Marvel Studios

Ryan Coogler has not had an easy time bringing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to screens. As well as following up on the hugely successful Black Panther, he was required to repurpose the story following the death of Chadwick Boseman.

Speaking in a previous interview, Coogler discussed the original plan for the Black Panther sequel, a story that was complete and ready to go just weeks before Boseman’s passing. Coogler explained:

"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 ended up being a much different story, but how it handles the death of T’Challa, and in turn honors Boseman’s short time in the franchise, has resonated with fans, leading to it becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 2022. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still playing in cinemas worldwide.