Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler opened up about the two scenes that he needed to include in the sequel to avoid it becoming the "worst movie ever."
Black Panther 2 received widespread acclaim after finding the right balance of honoring Chadwick Boseman while pushing the franchise's story forward.
While many agreed that the final version of Black Panther 2 left everyone satisfied, there are still alternate scenes that didn't make the cut, such as a different ending involving Okoye and an Iron Man-inspired subplot for Riri Williams.
Now, more details about a different version of the film emerged.
Ryan Coogler Reveals Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Two Important Scenes
During the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever audio commentary, director Ryan Coogler revealed that they tried a version of the sequel that removes the opening United Nations scene featuring Angela Bassett's Queen Ramonda and the Dora Milaje action scene involving Danai Gurira's Okoye:
“I’ll tell y’all a secret that’s funny. We were experimenting with all types of stuff with this movie. And at one point, we experimented with taking these two scenes out of the movie, like [the U.N. scene and the opening Dora Milaje action scene] here. And we were just talking like, ’Yeah, it’ll work without it, ‘cause X, Y, and, Z.’"
However, the MCU filmmaker revealed that removing those two scenes made it the "worst movie ever," pointing out that they were needed for the sequel to work:
"And I remember I came in early at 6am to watch, because I just wanted to watch it down before we tested it with the scenes out. And we pressed play on it, and I was watching it, and it was just the worst movie ever, you know what I’m saying?"
Coogler got so worried about the state of the film that he frantically called Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore, in order to get the movie fixed before the test screening began:
"I was like, ‘Oh, this is terrible.’ At some point, I was standing up in the screening room completely alone, like 6:45am, and I’m just calling on my phone, calling Nate [Moore], I’m calling everybody like, ‘Yo, this is a mistake. We gotta fix this.’ But it’s a trip to understand how important these two scenes are for the movie to work.”
Why Black Panther 2's Opening Scenes Worked
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's two opening scenes featuring Okoye and Queen Ramonda set the sequel's tone while cementing how formidable Wakanda is even without its protector, the Black Panther.
Removing the aforementioned scenes and going straight to Namor and the Talokans' attack against the humans would've led fans to wonder why other nations were hellbent on putting pressure on Wakanda to share their vibranium.
Moreover, the intense action sequence involving the Dora Milaje also cemented the brute force that Wakanda can showcase when provoked, warning everyone that they are a country that is not to be messed with.
Black Panther 2 director Ryan Coogler's comments about the sequel becoming the "worst movie ever" without those two scenes are valid since they presented Wakanda's dominance before their eventual clash with another strong enemy in Talokan in the latter moments of the film.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now streaming on Disney+.
