In Captain America: Civil War he did not hesitate to put on the Black Panther armor and fight to avenge his father, he seemed more than prepared to assume the role of king, but perhaps that’s not the case after all.
This is an element that we haven’t heard a lot about recently.
At least part of the reason that T’Challa might not be automatically following in his father’s footsteps, based on these comments, is the idea that the man himself may not feel ready.
While we knew that there would potentially be other characters also looking to take advantage of T’Chaka’s death for their own political gain, the idea that T’Challa wasn’t quite ready for this time to come is new.