In a recent interview, Ryan Coogler revealed what was considered to be an alternate ending of Black Panther.
The film’s ending as it is sees T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) taking Shuri (Letitia Wright) to Oakland where his uncle N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) and cousin Erik (Michael B. Jordan) lived, which is also where his father (John Kani) killed N’Jobu.
At the site, T’Challa bought several buildings to turned into the first resource and outreach centers for Wakanda in Oakland, which would include a science center led by Shuri.
On the Empire Film Podcast podcast (h/t to Collider), Coogler discussed what would be the original ending for Black Panther. Confirming what some folks may have thought, the post-credit scene of T’Challa, Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), Okoye and Ayo at the U.N., revealing to share some of Wakanda’s resources to the world, was going to be the original ending.
He said,
“It was (almost the ending). We played with a lot of different ways to end it. We went back and forth about the U.N., and we had a version where it was the U.N. before the scenes in Oakland at the end. But we really kind of settled on how do we want the movie to end? And it came back to that symmetry, and it came back to the most moving version of it. That’s what we were asking ourselves, ‘Who’s more moved emotionally, that kid or the people sitting in the U.N.?’ Who is that a bigger deal to for T’Challa to walk in, who’s more connected to him?”
He continued to explain why he chose to end with T’Challa talking to a young kid from Oakland, portrayed by Moonlight’s Alex Hibbert who had an unexpected cameo (there is also a wild theory that has been suggested on who Hibbert’s character could be).
“As a kid, growing up, when you see somebody who looks like an older version of you doing something awesome, it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’ That’s kind of what that moment… We kind of went with the less distilled emotion, and the U.N. makes sense afterwards for where Wakanda could be going in the future of this universe.”
Of course, now we couldn’t imagine Black Panther not ending the way that it did, but as pivotal as Marvel post-credit scenes are, all’s well that ends well.
