Kevin Feige and Ryan Coogler have spoken candidly about the loss of Chadwick Boseman in one of the most personal public conversations either man has had about the Black Panther star since his death in 2020.
The two spoke at a USC event on Thursday evening, where the university celebrated the dedication of the Kevin Feige Division of Film & Television Production at its School of Cinematic Arts.
Feige, Coogler and Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy, all USC graduates, took part in a wide-ranging conversation, but it was the moments about Boseman that stopped the room.
Neither man has spoken much publicly about the immediate aftermath of losing him. On Thursday, that changed.
Feige shared a detail from his last in-person meeting with Boseman that speaks to just how much was left unfinished.
At that meeting, Boseman had been talking about how much fun he was having voicing T’Challa in the animated series What If…? and how he wanted to carry that same energy into the next Black Panther film.
He never got the chance.
The memory led Feige to reflect on something he has clearly carried with him ever since, the assumption that there would always be a next time.
With Marvel, that assumption was almost built in. There was always another film on the horizon, another reason to see each other.
“We will be back in there, that was always my expectation,” he said. “So the need to set a dinner or a lunch to say hi, I just never do. Because we’re busy and because we’re going to have a next time. And that hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized that there wasn’t going to be a next time.”
Coogler then shared something that hadn’t been made public before.
In the days after Boseman’s death, Feige and Disney CEO Bob Iger flew to Oakland, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be with Coogler in person.
“They came to our apartment in lockdown … and we walked around the Richmond Arena and just talked. And that was the first real check-in,” he said.
“And it wasn’t ‘Hey, what are we going to do about this franchise?’ It was about, ‘Hey, are you OK? How are you taking it?’ … It was a real moment where you see the humanity beyond the corporate things and the financial responsibilities.”
For Coogler, the experience became a lesson he has tried to hold onto. He spoke about the danger of defaulting to the “I’ll see you at the next thing” mindset, the same trap Feige described, and what it cost him not to push past it sooner.
He ended with a quiet simplicity that said everything.
“There was only one Chad, bro. And there was only one character that was really meant for him.”
