Source: Entertainment Weekly

Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther collaborators are remembering the emotional impact of the actor’s tragic death.

Director Ryan Coogler and producer Kevin Feige recently opened up about the devastating loss of the 42 actor in 2020 during a conversation at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, where they celebrated the dedication of the school’s Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production.

Feige recalled that in his last meeting with Boseman alongside Marvel executives, the Marshall actor expressed his joy over voicing T’Challa on the animated series What If and how he hoped to bring a similarly lively spirit to a second Black Panther movie. The perpetual motion of the Marvel machine led Feige to assume that he would spend plenty of time with Boseman in the future since another Marvel sequel was always in development.

“We will be back in there — that was always my expectation,” the producer said, via The Hollywood Reporter. “So the need to set a dinner or a lunch to say hi, I just never do. Because we’re busy and because we’re going to have a next time. And that hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that there wasn’t going to be a next time.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Coogler remembered Boseman’s unique spirit and aptitude for playing T’Challa. “There was only one Chad, bro,” he said, “and there was only one character that was really meant for him.”

Coogler added that Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger visited him shortly after Boseman’s death in 2020.

“They came to our apartment in lockdown … and we walked around the Richmond Arena and just talked. And that was the first real check-in,” Coogler recalled. “And it wasn’t, ‘Hey, what are we going to do about this franchise?’ It was about, ‘Hey, are you okay? How are you taking it?'”
The generosity of the gesture stuck with him. “It was a real moment where you see the humanity beyond the corporate things and the financial responsibilities,” said the Oscar-nominated Sinners director.

Coogler told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that he considered quitting filmmaking after Boseman’s death. “I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,'” Coogler said. “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?'”

Coogler helmed the 2022 sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to honor Boseman’s legacy. He recently paid tribute to the late star at his Hollywood Walk of Fame induction ceremony in November.

“We continue to carry him with us. Chad was a star deserving of a star on the Walk of Fame, but he was also our most incredible jewel,” Coogler said. “He reflected light, he refracted it, and when he did, he showed the greatness of our people, and the universe of our shared humanity. Thank you, Chad.”

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