New details surrounding the untimely death of Chadwick Boseman have revealed the extent to which the actor went to hide his fatal diagnosis.
Nevertheless, director Ryan Coogler has said he knew his “Black Panther” collaborator wasn’t himself during what came to be their final conversation.
The filmmaker, 36, looked back on that call during the first episode of Marvel’s “Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther” podcast.
Boseman passed in August 2020 at the age of 43 from colon cancer, which he had kept secret from the industry, including his colleagues on “Black Panther.”
Unbeknownst to Coogler, their chat in the summer of 2020 would be their last.
The “Creed” director called the South Carolina native up “to ask if he wanted to read [the script] before I got notes from the studio.”
“That was the last time we spoke. He passed maybe a couple of weeks after I finished,” he added.
“I could tell he was laying down when we were talking. He kicked [wife Taylor] Simone [Ledward] out because he told her he didn’t want her to hear anything that could get him in trouble with his NDA,” Coogler explained.
The “42” actor died in August 2020 from colon cancer.FilmMagicThe “Fruitvale Station” screenwriter continued, “She didn’t want to leave. I could tell something was up.”
According to Coogler, Boseman insisted he didn’t want to read the sequel’s script so as not to intrude on any of Marvel’s decisions regarding the film.
“I found out later he was too tired to read anything,” Coogler said.
Elsewhere in the conversation, the producer asked his friend about wedding plans with Ledward. The pair, in fact, quietly wed just before his death, despite telling Coogler “about how many people were coming” to the would-be ceremony. The late “Get On Up” star also asked Coogler about his newborn, after having declined an invitation to attend the baby shower of the Oakland native and his wife Zinzi Evans.
Coogler learned Boseman’s illness and death just a few weeks later, from the actor’s manager, Charles King.
Ryan Coogler (left) and Chadwick Boseman appear at the London premiere of “Black Panther” on Feb. 8, 2018.Getty Images “I didn’t want to believe it, so I called Denzel [Washington], and I spoke to him, and we thought it might be a rumor, so I texted Chad,” he recalled. “I was in denial.”
Coogler added, “Everything about Chad was unique. How he lived and how he died was unique.”
The sequel to “Black Panther,” entitled “Wakanda Forever,” debuts nationwide on Nov. 11.
