According to Marvel producer Nate Moore, the late Chadwick Boseman’s character, T’Challa, will not be recast in the Black Panther sequel.
According to ABC NEWS, Moore, who has produced several Marvel movies, including Black Panther, and his recent project, Eternals, said the Marvel Cinematic Universe plans to move on from Boseman’s character in respect of the actor’s legacy.
“You will not see T’Challa in [future Marvel films],” Moore said on “The Ringer-Verse” podcast, referring to the studio’s choice not to recast the part or use a CG version of him. “We just couldn’t do it.”
Moore continued, “When Chad passed, it was a real conversation we had with [director Ryan] Coogler about what do we do, and it was a fast conversation,” said Moore. “It wasn’t weeks. It was minutes of we had to figure out how to move that franchise on without that character. Because I think we all feel so much of T’Challa in the MCU on the screen — not in comics — is tied to Chadwick’s performance, is what he brought to that role both on- and off-screen.”
“So as hard as it has been narratively to figure out what to do, because that’s a big hole, at no point did we consider recasting,” Moore said. “So the challenge for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is telling a story without T’Challa.”
Moore confirmed in the 2022 sequel that “there will be a level of … catharsis in people coming back this universe without that guy because that guy and that universe to me are one and the same.” He added that “as filmmakers and storytellers, you have to figure out … what you want that movie to say about that guy who’s not going to be in it.”
Boseman, the beloved actor who graced the big screen with films including Black Panther, Get On Up, Marshall, and Da 5 Bloods, died from colon cancer at the age of 43 on August 28, 2020.
The sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is set to release on November 11, 2022.
