Black Panther 2: T’Challa’s son previously played a more prominent role in Wakanda Forever

Now Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has been out for a couple of weeks, writer Joe Robert Cole is discussing what didn’t make it into the script, including a bigger role for T’Challa’s son.

There was a lovely surprise during the end credits of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Shuri journeys to Haiti to grive the passing of T’Challa, and while on the beach, Nakia reveals that T’Challa fathered a child before he passed away.

Naki and the boy – named Toussaint – briefly bond before the credits roll, as we previously described here.

But now the sequel’s co-writer Joe Robert Cole has revealed that the child originally appeared sooner in the story…

T’Challa always had a son in Black Panther 2

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Cole says: “T’Challa had a child in a previous iteration of the script prior to Chad’s passing. Him having a child was always in the DNA of what we wanted to do. We just weren’t sure, after he passed, about the best way to incorporate him. So there were various iterations of his son being in our new story.

“We finally landed on the reveal at the end. There was a point where I think when Ramonda goes to Haiti, we had talked about potentially having him be revealed there. So we knew we wanted him to be a part of the movie in some way, and landed, I think, on the best possible version.”

But that mid-credit scene wasn’t always the plan.

Original script was “more child-focused”

Speaking about a “previous iteration” of the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever script, Cole says: “We really were more child-focused in the narrative, and his son was a part of that. Obviously that changed, but we wanted him to exist in the film in some way. It was much more reduced.

“There were conversations about, when do we reveal this information to the audience and what’s the best version of it? Not only emotionally, but just narratively for the story and how it affects the characters in the story when they find out this information, and so forth. We played around a little bit, but he was never going to have a much a larger presence after Chad passed.”

For more of our Black Panther 2 coverage, head here.