Director Ryan Coogler Details Last Convo With Chadwick Boseman

The Black Panther lives on in memories.

Two years after Chadwick Boseman died at age 43 from colon cancer, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is recalling their final interaction.

“My last conversation with him was calling to ask if he wanted to read [the script] before I got notes from the studio,” he said Nov. 3 episode of the Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast. “That was the last time we spoke. He passed maybe a couple weeks after I finished.”

Through the phone, Coogler noticed just how tired Boseman—who played the titular Marvel superhero—really was.

“I could tell he was laying down when we were talking,” he added, noting Boseman’s wife Simone Ledward Boseman was also there. “He kicked Simone out because he told her he didn’t want her to hear nothing that could get him in trouble with his NDA.” 

And though Boseman refused to read the sequel’s script—telling the director he didn’t want to get in the way of the studio’s notes—Coogler shared, “I found out later that he was too tired to read anything.”