The director of "Black Panther" is revealing how the late Chadwick Boseman was partly responsible for providing one of the most profound lines in the movie.
According to a statement by Ryan Coogler, posted by the L.A. Times, Boseman and Coogler would meet during filming to discuss lines and ways to add depth to each scene.
At the end of "Black Panther," just before his death, the antagonist Erik Killmonger is offered a chance to possibly live by Boseman's T'Challa. Killmonger declines, knowing it likely means life in prison.
Coogler said that in the early drafts of the script, Killmonger -- played by Michael B. Jordan -- would ask T'Challa to be buried in Wakanda.
"Chad challenged that and asked, 'What if Killmonger asked to be buried somewhere else?" Coogler wrote.
In the final product, Killmonger says, "Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage."
Coogler said Boseman also solidified that Xhosa would be the official language of Wakanda because he was able to learn the lines in that language.
"He also advocated for his character to speak with an African accent so that he could present T’Challa to audiences as an African king, whose dialect had not been conquered by the West," Coogler wrote.
Boseman died Friday after a four-year battle with colon cancer. He kept his diagnosis private from most of the world while continuing to act in multiple films, which added to the shock of his passing.
Coogler wrote he was not aware of the details of Boseman's illness during their time working together.
“I noticed then that Chad was an anomaly. He was calm. Assured. Constantly studying. But also kind, comforting, had the warmest laugh in the world, and eyes that [saw] much beyond his years, but could still sparkle like a child seeing something for the first time," Coogler wrote.
