“Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler considered “walking away” from Hollywood following the death of actor Chadwick Boseman, he shared in a new interview.
Boseman died in 2020 at age 43 following a private, four-year battle with colon cancer.
“I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,’” Coogler told Entertainment Weekly.
“I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another 'Black Panther' movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’”
Boseman starred in 2018′s “Black Panther” as T’Challa, king of the fictional African nation Wakanda who suits up as the superhero Black Panther to protect his people.
Coogler shared in a tribute shortly after Boseman’s death that the actor didn’t reveal his cancer diagnosis as they made the Marvel movie, saying the star “shielded his collaborators from his suffering.”
The director did ultimately return for a sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” that arrives in theaters Nov. 11. The movie’s makers didn’t recast the role of T’Challa for the new film.
“It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently told Empire magazine.
“Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window. And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And Ryan poured that into the story.”
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