Director tells of Boseman’s ‘beautiful life’

Ryan Coogler, who made Hollywood history with Chadwick Boseman and “Black Panther,” said the actor was a superhero on and off the screen.

The Marvel director took over “Black Panther” after Boseman had already been cast, timing for which he said he’d “forever be grateful.”

“He was a special person. We would often speak about heritage and what it means to be African. When preparing for the film, he would ponder every decision, every choice, not just for how it would reflect on himself, but how those choices could reverberate,” Coogler (inset) said in a statement Sunday. Boseman, 43, died Friday after a four-year battle with colon cancer. Coogler said he only knew about Boseman’s diagnosis when the family announced his death.

“Because he was a caretaker, a leader, and a man of faith, dignity and pride, he shielded his collaborators from his suffering,” Coogler wrote.

“He lived a beautiful life. And he made great art. Day after day, year after year. That was who he was. He was an epic firework display. I will tell stories about being there for some of the brilliant sparks till the end of my days. What an incredible mark he’s left for us.”

Coogler praised Boseman for his work on set, focusing on his insistence that T’Challa speak Xhosa, the native language of John Kani, who played his father, King T’Chaka, “so that he could present T’Challa to audiences as an African king, whose dialect had not been conquered by the West.”

“In African cultures we often refer to loved ones that have passed on as ancestors. Sometimes you are genetically related. Sometimes you are not,” Coogler wrote.

“I had no doubt that he would live on and continue to bless us with more. But it is with a heavy heart and a sense of deep gratitude to have ever been in his presence, that I have to reckon with the fact that Chad is an ancestor now. And I know that he will watch over us, until we meet again.”