Chadwick Boseman’s brother, Derrick, told TMZ that his brother would want his iconic role of T’Challa recast for the Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In November, Marvel Vice President of Development Nate Moore announced that the position would not be changed with another actor.
Moore said that the decision was made to honor Chadwick’s memory. However, Derrick believes the actor would have wanted the character to live on in the sequel.
Although he concedes that the Golden Globe Award-winning actor did not make his wishes known before his untimely passing last year, Derrick believes Chadwick would have wanted the character to live on in the Marvel Universe because of the powerful influence the character of T’Challa had on the community.
Film critic Emmanuel “E-Man” Noisette also thinks the role of T’Challa should be recast because of the character’s impact on Black youth and began a petition on Change.org to have the character recast.
“If Marvel Studios removes T’Challa, it would be at the expense of the audiences (especially Black boys and men) who saw themselves in him. That also includes the millions of fans who were inspired by the character as well,” Noisette wrote.
Marvel Studios is likely to kill off the character of T'Challa to honor Chadwick Boseman. I believe they should #RecastTChalla to honor his hard work in making the #BlackPanther franchise popular.
Sign the petition👉🏿 https://t.co/M6P3ZOu1Bp
🙏🏿RT and share! #WakandaForever 🙅🏿♂️ pic.twitter.com/U75eT8MNLl
— E-Man's Movie Reviews – #RecastTChalla (@EmansReviews) April 5, 2021
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The film’s writer and director, Ryan Coogler, was in the process of writing the script for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever when Chadwick Boseman died and had to decide quickly how to handle the character of T’Challa. At no point did he consider recasting his friend and talked about Boseman’s kindness on set with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I miss him in every way that you could miss somebody, as a friend, as a collaborator,” said Coogler. “And it sucks because I love watching movies, and I don’t get to watch the next thing he would have made. So it’s grief on a lot of levels, but then, it’s a deep sense of gratitude because I can close my eyes and hear his voice. You’ve got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn’t have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective. Black Panther, that was his movie….. On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good.”
On Aug. 28, 2020, Boseman died in Los Angeles from colon cancer after a four-year battle with the disease. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released in theaters on Nov. 11, 2022.
