Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman always knew the movie was going to be iconic—even when the film’s director had his doubts. “‘This is Star Wars, this is Lord of the Rings, but for us… and bigger!’ he would say this to me while we were struggling to finish a dramatic scene, stretching into double overtime,” Ryan Coogler writes in a touching tribute to Boseman, who passed away from colon cancer on Friday night. “I would nod and smile, but I didn’t believe him. I had no idea if the film would work... But I look back and realize that Chad knew something we all didn’t. He was playing the long game.”

“In African cultures we often refer to loved ones that have passed on as ancestors... From the time that I met [Boseman], the ancestors spoke through him,” Coogler adds. “It is with a heavy heart... 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.”