Ryan Coogler delivered an insightful lecture at Bafta in London on Monday (Picture: Getty Images)
Ryan Coogler became overwhelmed with emotion while discussing what it was like working on the next instalment of Black Panther without its lead star, Chadwick Boseman.
Coogler, 36, returned to direct the sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, after Boseman died in August 2020 aged 43 following a private battle with colon cancer.
It was the first film in the series without Boseman and saw the likes of Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira and Winston Duke reprise their roles from the 2018 film.
On Monday, Coogler reflected on his stellar filmmaking career while delivering Bafta’s David Lean Lecture and spoke openly about his experience returning to the Marvel franchise without his friend and colleague Boseman.
Fighting back tears, the director said: ‘I found myself in a position that I wasn’t [comfortable when directing Black Panther: Wakanda Forever].
‘I was a director without a lead actor, tasked to make a film about a hero when we’d just lost ours.
The filmmaker reflected on his blockbuster Hollywood career (Picture: Getty Images for BAFTA)
Coogler admitted he had to question how to move on with Black Panther after Chadwick Boseman’s death (Picture: Getty Images for BAFTA)
The 36-year-old follows in the footsteps of Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee who have given the David Lean Lecture in past years (Picture: Getty Images for BAFTA)
Coogler sat down with Mariayah Kaderbhai for the ‘in conversation’ event (Picture: Getty Images for BAFTA)
‘So the question was, how do you move on when your very existence, your very identity, was defined by another person, and you lose them?
‘That question motivated us to complete the film.’
Prior to Black Panther, Coogler made a name for himself directing Michael B Jordan in the powerful 2013 drama Fruitvale Station, based on the real life fatal police shooting of California native Oscar Grant III.
Coogler also worked with Jordan on 2015’s Creed, a spin-off of the Rocky franchise with Sylvester Stallone. He has served as a producer on films such as Judas and the Black Messiah, starring Daniel Kaluuya, and Space Jam: A New Legacy.
Both Black Panther and Judas And The Black Messiah were nominated for best picture at the Oscars, and the Marvel superhero movie took home more than $1billion (£815m) at the box office.
Black Panther lost its lead star with Boseman’s death in August 2020 (Picture: Marvel/Disney/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock)
Despite his success, Coogler admitted: ‘I still struggle with doubt, every day… I’ve dealt with disappointments, man, like big time, and… to be a filmmaker is to [be OK with] rejection.
‘For every one acceptance letter, I got hundreds of no thank yous from actors… and studios.’
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He added: ‘The medium of filmmaking is over 100 years old and quite often, for a large section of that time, the great and powerful medium of filmmaking has been used against Black people, used to attack our identities, our sense of self, and our standing in the caste systems that exist around us.’
Coogler also recalled how he enlisted the help of Creed star Stallone so he could watch director Sir David Lean’s film Lawrence Of Arabia on the big screen.
‘When I was getting ready to get hired to make Black Panther, I knew I wanted to make something that felt epic in scope,’ he told the audience.
‘So [me and my wife] reached out to him and asked him if he could screen a print of it for us, he was more than happy to.
‘[Stallone] was kind of like talking to me all the time. You know, it was fantastic.’
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The filmmaker discussed his stellar career during a lecture at Bafta on Tuesday.
