Ryan Coogler revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast what his original
Black Panther 2 script was about (
quote courtesy of io9):
“The big thing about the script was that it was this thing called the Ritual of Eight,” Coogler said. “When a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father. Amongst those eight days, they have to go into the bush without any tools. And the prince has to listen and do everything that’s asked of him by his father, but the rule is, for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question. And the father has to answer.”
“So during the course of those eight days, Namor launches an attack,” Coogler continued. “So that was what the movie was. He had to deal with somebody, and it was a different version of Namor in that script, but he had to deal with someone who was, like, insanely dangerous. But, because of this ritual, his son had to be joined at his hip the whole time. So while he was engaging in negotiations and fights, his son had to be right there, or else they’d have to violate this ritual, which had never been broken.”
Coogler also revealed that when he finished that version of the script, he sent it to Boseman to read, but he was too sick to do so.
I'm sorry we didn't get that version of the film and it definitely sounds like it would've been a fun but intense adventure. I do like how Coogler was able to use the bones of that story use it for
Wakanda Forever, which I still maintain is an excellent film despite all of the naysayers.
