Photo Credit: Marvel Studios
Ryan Coogler is a time that Chadwick Boseman “freaked out” Disney executives on the set of Black Panther.

Boseman played T’Challa in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther, which was directed by Coogler and released in 2018. Boseman went on to appear in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame before he then passed away in 2020 at the age of 43.

What did Ryan Coogler say about Chadwick Boseman and the Black Panther set?

Speaking with People about his new horror movie Sinners, Coogler recalled how Boseman spoke with T’Challa’s accent during the entirety of Black Panther’s production, which then “freaked out” Disney executives.

“[Chad] pulled up and [he was talking in] T’Challa’s accent, and they was freaked out,” Coogler said. “I was like, ‘Don’t be freaked out. He’s working, man. He don’t turn it off till we wrap. And no shame or embarrassment in that — that’s how he was moving.”

Coogler also said of working with Boseman, “He was the kind of teacher who you never knew you was getting a lesson when he taught. It was all by example and what he gave me and Michael [B. Jordan] was patience. He moved at an old-school pace and he took his time [but] he was always early. He was that type of dude. And Mike will tell you this, I told him man, I said, ‘Hey bro, what would Chad do in this role [in Sinners]? If he had this role what would he do?’ ‘Cause Chad never broke action.”

Black Panther is currently available to stream on Disney+. Coogler also directed the sequel to the MCU movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which was released in 2022. He’s now working on a third Black Panther movie for Marvel that may star Denzel Washington.

Sinners, meanwhile, opens in United States theaters on April 18, 2025, from Warner Bros. Pictures.