Ryan Coogler has revealed what “Black Panther” was supposed to look like before the world lost Chadwick Boseman.

During a recent appearance on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, the director shared details about his original plan for the sequel and how much of T’Challa’s story was still left to tell. Boseman, who starred as the Wakandan king in 2018’s “Black Panther,” died of colon cancer in 2020 at age 43, forcing Coogler and Marvel Studios to rethink the entire film.

“I threw a lot at Chad in the first Panther. But I … realized, like, oh, man, I was just scratching the surface. … I was just like…a dump truck on him,” Coogler told host Josh Horowitz.

The sequel was designed to focus heavily on T’Challa’s evolution as a father. Coogler explained that the story revolved around a Wakandan rite called the Ritual of Eight, which would follow T’Challa and his young son during a pivotal moment in the prince’s life.

“The big thing about the script was … this thing called The Ritual of Eight … when a prince is eight years old, he has to go spend eight days in the bush with his father…They have to go into the bush … without any tools,” Coogler said. “And the prince … has to listen and do everything that's asked of him by his father. But the rule is for those eight days, the prince can ask the father any question, and the father has to answer….”

That journey would have been interrupted by Namor, who still appears as an antagonist in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” “During the course of those eight days, Namor launches an attack….That was what the movie was.”

Coogler also revealed that Boseman never got the chance to read the script. “I finished it,” he said. But “he was too sick to read it.”

After Boseman’s death, Coogler and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made the decision not to recast T’Challa, choosing instead to acknowledge his death in the film. The loss hit close for Coogler, who shared how Boseman once pulled him aside during the first movie when he was doubting himself.

During the hardest days on set, Coogler confided in Boseman that he thought he’d get fired.

However, Boseman shut that talk down quickly.

“One day, he took me to the side, and he was like, ‘Yo, stop saying that.’ … I was like, ‘Man, I really feel that way,’” Coogler said. “He was like, ‘Look at me, bro. … I would never let that happen to you.’”