For Ryan Coogler, the weight of grief didn’t hit all at once—it came in waves, and one of the hardest moments arrived after the cameras stopped rolling.
The acclaimed filmmaker, best known for directing Black Panther, recently opened up about the emotional aftermath of losing his friend and lead actor, Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer. Speaking in a candid interview with The Guardian, Coogler described entering what he called a period of “complicated grief,” one that forced him to reevaluate not only his work but his entire relationship with filmmaking.
“I think my heart broke twice,” Coogler admitted. “The first time when Chad passed. The second time—after Wakanda Forever came out—when I had to confront the finality of it all. That he wasn’t coming back. That there’d be no more Chadwick movies.”
Though the production of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was shaped by that painful absence, Coogler shared that diving into the project offered him a sense of purpose during an otherwise devastating time. “Sometimes it’s a relief to have something to focus on,” he said. “That way you’re not just sitting with the weight of that terrible feeling.”
The sequel took a deeply personal direction. Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole chose not to recast Boseman’s role as King T’Challa. Instead, they restructured the story to honor the late actor’s memory—a move that resonated deeply with fans and the cast alike.
Still, when the dust settled and the film was released, Coogler said he was left with a sense of emptiness that no box office milestone could fill. “I didn’t really realize how much I had been using the work to avoid the grief. When it was over, I had to face the reality that Chad’s not making another movie. That hit hard.”
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Back in 2022, Coogler shared with Entertainment Weekly that he had considered stepping away from the industry entirely. “I was ready to walk away from filmmaking,” he said at the time. “I wasn’t sure I could do this again, especially without Chad. I didn’t know if my heart could take it.”
But ultimately, the director decided to keep going—driven by a desire to honor Boseman’s impact and by the possibility that storytelling could help him, and others, heal.
Now, Coogler is channeling that emotion into new creative territory. His upcoming project, Sinners, is a supernatural period drama that reunites him with longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan. The film centers on two brothers, both played by Jordan, who return to their hometown hoping for redemption—only to encounter a dark, otherworldly threat.
Yes, there are vampires—but Coogler says that’s just scratching the surface.
“This isn’t your typical vampire flick,” he teased. “It’s genre-bending. It’s emotional, it’s tense—it explores trauma, brotherhood, and faith. The vampires are part of it, but the heart of the story is much deeper than that.”
While Sinners marks a departure from the Marvel universe, it also reflects a filmmaker still grappling with loss, transformation, and what comes next. And though rumors suggest Coogler may return for another Black Pantherinstallment, he seems focused, for now, on carving a path forward—one story at a time.
“Grief doesn’t go away,” he said quietly. “But sometimes, storytelling helps us carry it.”
