It looks like Black Panther director Ryan Coogler had a much different ending for Chadwick Boseman's first standalone movie as the King of Wakanda.
After the climactic fight with his cousin, Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) dies watching the sunset on a homeland that he's barely seen. Listening to his rival's final words and taking them to heart, T'Challa decided to make some big changes to Wakanda, opening the country and reaching out to the rest of the world. It's a dramatic ending that brings the film full circle, however, Coogler originally had very different lines for Killmonger.
Speaking in an interview with Cinema Blend,Black Panther editor Michael Shawver gave away some of the secrets of the film, one of which included the original line for Killmonger's death scene. Taking in the sunset, Killmonger comments on the beauty of the setting sun, telling his cousin that "it's beautiful, but what are you going to do for everybody in the world who can't see this?"
"What we shot originally, and in the script, was Killmonger saying 'It's beautiful, but what are you going to do for everybody in the world who can't see this?' And it was great. It was powerful, it was awesome, but it was problematic for a few reasons. One, we realized that just as a character, for the journey of T'Challa, he can't get the answer to the movie and what he needs to do from the villain - like straight-up exactly what he needs. And that's kind of what was happening. Secondly, it was a great performance, and [Michael B. Jordan] brought it, and it was painful to watch because you kind of don't want this guy to die, but it didn't fit his character."
Because the line ended up causing trouble for continuity and fool-proofing, Coogler decided to go back and rewrite the line for Killmonger, making a more effective scene n the film. Now, Black Panther remains one of the best films of 2018, breaking ground not only as the first standalone movie for T'Challa but as the first all-black comic book movie from Marvel.
Boseman is set to reprise his role as Black Panther in Avengers: Endgame on April 26, 2019.
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