Chadwick Boseman ‘Too Tired’ to Read First Script

• Chadwick Boseman did not read the first script of “Black Panther 2,” said director Ryan Coogler.
• Coogler told Variety that Boseman was “too tired” to read the script before his death in 2020.
• Letitia Wright also told Variety that she went into a “downward spiral” after Boseman’s death.

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” director Ryan Coogler said that Chadwick Boseman was unable to read the first draft of the sequel script before his death.

Boseman died on August 28, 2020, at the age of 43 after being diagnosed with colon cancer. At that point, the first draft for the “Black Panther” sequel had been written and sent to Boseman, the lead actor in the first movie.

In a cover story for Variety, costar Letitia Wright said that she heard “through the grapevine” that Boseman had made “fun of how long” the script was because it “was about 300 pages.”

However, Coogler told Variety that he later found out that the actor never read the script.

“He hadn’t read it,” the director said.

According to Variety, Coogler then struggled to voice why Bosewick hadn’t read it, instead writing down on a piece of paper something along the lines of: “He was too tired to read it.”

Coogler added: “For us on that movie, the interpersonal and the professional are fused together, which happens sometimes. It’s a human thing. We caught it with the cameras.”

Wright, who played Boseman’s sister in the first “Black Panther” movie, also shared how she found out about Boseman’s death. She said she was sent a message on August 29, 2020, that read “my condolences,” which confused her.

The actor recalled thinking when she first saw the message: “Is someone trying to play a joke on me? This is not a good joke. This is not OK. And I just did the first thing that anybody would do: I called Chad.”

When there was no answer, she texted Bosewick’s phone number: “Hey bro, it’s Tish. Please pick up.”

Wright then called another “Black Panther” cast mate in London, Daniel Kaluuya.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I think everybody’s tripping right now. I’m giving you like five seconds to tell me that this is not real,'” Wright said. “He was super silent. I was like, ‘OK, fine, if you’re not gonna tell me, I’m going to continue calling Chad until he picks up.'”

Wright said Kaluuya heard her calling Boseman on another phone and he stopped her.

Wright said Kaluuya’s words hit home when he said: “Tish. His family…”

Wright said that losing Boseman sent her into a “downward spiral” and she was distraught that she couldn’t travel to the private US memorial for Boseman due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It haunted me for months that I couldn’t say goodbye to him or be around my ‘Black Panther’ family to share in that moment,” she said. “I kind of had to do that by myself. Like, bless Daniel — he came to see me and stuff. But it wasn’t enough. I wanted to book a flight that day.”

Wright said that she coped by burying herself in work, similar to her character Shuri in “Wakanda Forever.”

When the actor finally had a conversation with Coogler about “Wakanda Forever,” she said she decided to dedicate the film to “Chad and to God.”

“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is in theaters on Friday.