myth in the marvel blockbuster "black panther," playing the king of the imaginary african nation of waconda1 billion at the box office and three academy awards. for many the film was a cultural touchstone. >> the black panthers. >> thank you so much for making "black panther." >> lee: fans lined up on "the tonight show" to attest just what the film meant to them. >> my childhood has been defined by barack obama and now "black panther," so thank you. >> lee: only to be surprised that boseman himself was the man behind the curtain. >> you are gorgeous. >> lee: his fans appreciated boseman, and he appreciated them as he laid out in a 2013 interview. >> and that's the reason why you act. you want to be able to actually identify with the characters that you play and explore humanity. >> lee: what none of his fans knew that was all through his great successes of the past four years, he was fighting colon cancer the whole time. he died friday, the day major league baseball honored jackie robinson. chadwick boseman was just 43. s no way to predict who will or won't clear the virus. but you can help

waconda is this amalgamation of little specific things from these cultures that signified the beauty. came from, i believe, ancient egyptian. >> waconda forever. >> waco in,nda forever. >> helped guide him to the central conflict of the film, an african character being face-to-face with an african-american character and tex tension of those two people and pain of being so distanced from where you were from. >> after three weeks coogler returns home inspired and transformed. >> it was a trip that truly changed me i think for the better but also awakened passions in me. >> coogler's experience helps bring waconda to life as a magnificent kingdom untouched by colonialism and slavery. >> there was a time where africa was more advanced than the rest of the world. what if that never got lost? >> reginald hudland was a "black panther" comic book writer and creator of the animated television show. >> what if we didn't have colonial people who came in and put people in changes and destroyed their language, destroyed their culture. what if you just kept going with that cultural head start? >> t