Black Panther 2 Director's Cut & Deleted Scenes Teased by Producer
Producer Nate Moore confirms the existence of a Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director’s cut and teases the details of certain deleted scenes.
RYAN NORTHRUP
PUBLISHED NOV 13, 2022
https://screenrant.com/black-panther...directors-cut/
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever producer Nate Moore teases the existence of a director's cut and offers additional details on the film's deleted scenes. Director Ryan Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released this past week, earning mostly positive reviews from audiences and critics alike. The film, which serves as the conclusion to Phase 4 of the MCU, sees the nation of Wakanda grieving the loss of Chadwick Boseman's King T'Challa while dealing with a new threat in the form of Tenoch Huerta's Namor. The sequel brings back a number of characters from the first Black Panther, including Letitia Wright's Shuri, Angela Bassett's Ramonda, and Danai Gurira's Okoye and is Phase 4's longest movie yet with a runtime of 2 hours and 41 minutes.
In a recent interview with Collider, producer Nate Moore reveals details about Ryan Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director's cut. The producer teases that a number of scenes were left on the cutting room floor for one reason or another, largely due to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's already extended runtime. Moore also details one Okoye scene in particular that didn't make it into the final cut of the movie. Check out Moore's full comment below:
"A lot of characters have scenes that are great scenes that the movie just couldn't bear. It's already a relatively long movie, and we wanted to make sure the movie felt as focused as it could, while doing as much as it's doing. But there are some deleted scenes that are really cool. I think there's a spectrum.
"There's some from the Director's Cut that didn't make it forward. There's some that we played with for a long time, and screened, and screened multiple times. We're notorious for tinkering a lot in editorial and trying things. Ryan, by the way, is as well. So, things are in, things are out. 'What about this over here?' So, some are closer to completion, some are pretty raw.
"There's certainly a scene with Okoye and Ayo after Okoye has been fired that's really interesting. That, again, I think is incredibly watchable. It just slowed the pace down of the movie a little bit. But you get to see, Okoye react to the new General, and you get to see what she was planning to do before the events of Namor, and the Talocan coming to Wakanda happen. It's actually pretty cool."
Although the prospect of a director's cut for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is likely an exciting prospect for many fans, the MCU has historically not issued any extended movie cuts. Moore himself casts doubt on Coogler's director's cut ever being released for that very reason, with producers and filmmakers typically agreeing on the theatrical cut being the definitive version of the film. Moore previously revealed the existence of a 4-hour director's cut of the original Black Panther, but doubted that version's release as well for similar reasons, including unfinished visual effects and music. That being said, Moore teases that the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever deleted scenes might eventually be released in some other capacity.
With such a long runtime, it's inevitable that certain scenes will have to be cut in order to streamline the movie. Despite the Okoye deleted scene that Moore details sounding like an interesting addition that would help to further explain her state of mind after being relieved of her position in Wakanda, Coogler ultimately deemed that its addition would slow down the overall pace of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It's likely that the other deleted scenes served similar purposes like going deeper into certain characters' states of mind or exploring various subplots, which while illuminating, just don't fit into the end product for one reason or another.
It remains to be seen whether the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever deleted scenes will ever be released, but most fans seem to agree that the movie works just fine as is. The sequel has a lot of heavy lifting to do in terms of exploring the emotional impacts of T'Challa's death while also introducing new characters and plot lines into the MCU, something that evidently required a lot of tinkering in the editing room to get just right. Even though Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director's cut is unlikely to ever be released just based on Marvel's treatment of extended cuts in the past, MCU fans may indeed get to experience the film's deleted scenes in some capacity in the future.