Kevin Feige says Chadwick Boseman’s What If…? episodes influenced the Black Panther sequel
The late Chadwick Boseman's final acting performance was in the animated Marvel multiverse series
TV News Chadwick Boseman
The late Chadwick Boseman’s final acting appearance begins airing this week, as T’Challa enters the new Marvel series What If…? The animated multiverse series has been able to answer all the hypothetical questions concerning the vast Marvel Cinematic Universe, like in the first episode, “What If… Captain Carter Was The First Avenger?” Now, the first of many episodes featuring Boseman tackles another big question: “What if T’Challa Was Star-Lord?”
During last night’s red carpet for Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Marvel President Kevin Feige touched on how Boseman’s last performance as T’Challa will have a lasting influence on the MCU, particularly in the sequel for Black Panther, titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. While recording the forthcoming What If…? episodes, Feige says Boseman really connected with who T’Challa becomes in the series.
“We didn’t know it would be his final performance obviously,” Feige told Variety. “He came in numerous times, was so gung ho about it, was so excited about it… He read the episode that airs 24 hours from now and then came back and said ‘I really love this version of T’Challa.’ And we had a conversation after that with Ryan [Coogler, director of Wakanda Forever] about how do we get some of this voice—none of the storyline—but just some of that voice into Panther 2… I’m excited for the fans to see that as well.”
As the one year anniversary of Boseman’s death arrives later this month, Feige was asked if Marvel has any special plans for the day: “Every day is a tribute to him right now as we’re filming in Atlanta, every single day.”
Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, and Angela Bassett all return for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with no one replacing Boseman as T’Challa. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on July 8, 2022.
53 Comments
So, Chris Pratt is Black Panther now?
No Chris Pratt is Black Widow!!!
Scarlett Johansson is Black Panther!
I thought she was Shang-Chi.
No, she is Groot
No, WE are Groot.
She’s famous Marvel Comics crossover character Black Shang-Chi!
Blang-Bli!
This comment is amazing LOL
Mark Ruffalo is … just happy to be here.
Jeremy Renner is not about to let Ruffalo horn in on his schtick!
Chris Pratt is Starfox
Do a barrel roll!!!
And Chris Hemsworth is Slippy Toad.
Tropic Thunder Robert Downey Jr. is Black Panther.
And note that the official Star Lord Twitter account now has T’Challa, almost like they’re doing it for every episode and all that outrage over Peggy “replacing” Sam was completely stupid.
I am sure all the incel MRAs who were made that Peggy Carter got jacked when she became a super soldier are just gonna love replacing a white guy with a black guy(again). Can’t wait to see angry Youtube yell about SJWs for an hour
I’m working on a new internet math equation. So far I’ve got this… For every individual shit-heel rallying against ‘woke’ culture there are at least 3 keyboard warriors warning us about them.
Yeah, I mean Woke Twitter can be really annoying (like now they hate SNL for a skit that was satirizing the Afghan War 20 years ago but they took it literally, long story), but it’s vastly outnumbered by incoherent Boomers on Facebook or Incels on YouTube
Your point?
Personally, I’m okay with jacked Peggy Carter, and would be very okay with jacked Hayley Atwell doing some publicity shots or something as her. More than okay. Really, any time Hayley Atwell wants to get jacked and do a bicep flex at me I’m happy to oblige. Please.
The fuck Bersanti at to answer for this?
I need to hear (famous name) WEIGH IN ON THE CONTROVERSY, or I’ll die.
Jesus Marvel needs to be over. This is just so sad at this point. Support REAL cinema!
Crawl back into your hole, boomer…
Wow, Martin Scorsese commenting on The AV Club! I’m honored, sir.
Can’t wait for “old people do mob stuff while DiCaprio screams” yet again!
To be fair, “Old People Do Mob Stuff While DiCaprio Screams” was a pretty good movie.
I’m sorry, sir, but The Irishman was way too long, and no amount of CGI changes the fact that Robert De Niro walks like a mummy now.
What’s stopping you?
Movies in general suck these days. Support the true art form of the future – video games.(Kidding but also kinda not?)
Let me guess, you defend the artistic integrity of Woody Allen and say his film legacy should be separated from his marrying-his-step-daughter legacy
One can watch many movies, really.
The last film I saw at cinemas before the pandemic was ‘Parasite’. The first film I saw after things got better here was ‘Supernova’. The most recent film I’ve seen is ‘Black Widow’. You really can just watch different movies.
Oh man you must have been SO FUN when we still had parties.
But why?
Interesting. I didn’t know the first ep with T’Challa was “T’Challa as Star-Lord”. I wonder how that will come about. Peggy was always in the room during the Captain America event so that is a more natural “butterfly effect” change. But how is an African prince from the 2010s going to become the kid kidnapped by aliens in 1988? And because of what his father had done in 1980.
“But how is an African prince from the 2010s going to become the kid kidnapped by aliens in 1988″From what I can tell, the Ravagers really don’t like pulling over and asking for directions, spatial or temporal.
Look…Ted….just…just….Ok?
It’s almost like two people born in the second half of the 1970s would be kids at the same time in the 1980s (assuming the characters are about the same age as the actors). And when you’re coming from galaxies away, ending up in Wakanda instead of America is basically like getting the street number wrong.
I get where you’re coming from, and I recognize that Marvel’s the one that has set up each episode as a kind of butterfly effect from changing one thing. Honestly, though, I think the show will be better if it focuses on just telling interesting stories that don’t fit within the cinematic universe’s canon, rather than trying to exclusively do things that can be explained by some single timeline change in the MCU.
That could certainly be it.
I really hope they start to get weird with it. If the Captain Carter ep (which I liked overall) is the template moving forward where they tell the same stories as the movies but with the lead swapped out, it’ll be a letdown of the series promise imo.
I hope they start to do what What If? Did best, which is up the body count. I’m rereading the original two series and for every “happy” story there are three or more “This changes so everyone died” stories. Just read what if the Marvel heroes lost Atlantis attacks(a fairly obscure late 80s crossover). Which ended with all the people on earth becoming snake people except the “Brides of Set” who were 7 female super heroes who got impregnated by the 7 headed snake god. Once they gave birth to their snake babies they were then eaten and those babies went on to conquer other worlds.
Yondu is kind of a putz, is what it boils down to.
I do wonder how they’ll handle T’Challa. I kind of hope they have him die naturally, of cancer like Boseman, showing that even the most powerful of heroes are mortal.
“Wakanda is in many ways a real-life Utopia, but just like America, our healthcare system sucks.”
Boseman’s passing is tragic for any number of reasons. Yet, for how understated he is in Black Panther, his performance really does linger.My unpopular take is that Michael B. Jordan should come back. After all, we never see him die. Nothing a quick retcon couldn’t fix. Plus, you’ve got a great arc set up from the get-go.
Yes, as good as Boseman was, Jordan should have been BP from the start.
Another What If … ? is going to be Killmonger saving Tony Stark in Afghanistan. I believe he goes on to be king of Wakanda in that episode (Michael B. Jordan is voicing him).And since with the multiverse now existing, it’s been hinted that Captain Carter at some point potentially could make the jump to live action, well … you never know!
Yeah I said it around when he passed that Jordan, heard with Wakandian tech could be a more troubled and world weary BP. Not sure if they will go for that angle though
Ehh? Like he was good as a character but he also murdered numerous people, and for entirely selfish reasons. My one minor quibble with BP (and anything with Magneto)is that. What if he was otherwise completely benevolent to his people so they have little reason to oppose him other than power/ideology?
I sometimes feel that when actors do great work with a role, something that can be overlooked is their vocal performance as people tend to focus more on the physical and gestural aspects. But for me, a lot of what made Boseman’s take on Black Panther work was the voice; it manages to be gentle and commanding at the same time. As sad as it is that this will be his final performance, part of me appreciates that it will highlight such a great part of what he did with the character.