Kevin Feige felt it was “much too soon” after Chadwick Boseman’s death to recast Black Panther
Kevin Feige and Ryan Coogler decided Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would incorporate Chadwick Boseman's loss, rather than gloss over it
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The release of the Black Panther sequel is sure to dredge up feelings about the death of Chadwick Boseman, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s most beloved stars. While most of the details of Wakanda Forever are still under wraps, we know that the movie will deal with the loss of King T’Challa in some form. And according to MCU overlord Kevin Feige, there was never a question of having another actor step into T’Challa’s shoes.
“It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” Feige tells Empire magazine in a new interview. “Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window. And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And [director] Ryan [Coogler] poured that into the story.”
He continues, “The conversations were entirely about, yes, ‘What do we do next?’ And how could the legacy of Chadwick–and what he had done to help Wakanda and the Black Panther become these incredible, aspirational, iconic ideas–continue? That’s what it was all about.”
While for many fans it would undoubtedly feel inappropriate for there to suddenly be another T’Challa, Feige and Coogler clearly didn’t feel it was too soon to have a character assume the mantle. The trailer for Wakanda Forever suggests we’ll be introduced to a new Black Panther very soon.
As bittersweet as it is, the idea is actually in keeping with this phase of the MCU, in which Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova will become the new Black Widow and Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson is the new Captain America. New heroes taking on old titles is a common feature in comic books, and it feels like an organic evolution for the MCU’s future. Wakanda Forever’s job is to do so in a way that honors the characters’ grief over T’Challa and the audience’s grief over Boseman.
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I’ve been a big proponent of recasting T’Challa. I understand Feige’s reasons for not doing so and that Black Panther is a mantel that could be assumed by someone else. However, T’Challa is an incredible character on his own that deserved more than one movie (and bits of a few others). I also don’t want to wallow in real-life sadness for a Marvel movie. The trailer, while amazing, is tapping in to emotions of actual grief in a way that feels slightly exploitative. That said, I still will be there opening weekend. I just wish they had recast.
Agreed. I get that they want to honor Boseman but you can do that and keep the character alive (I would argue that keeping the character does that in and of itself).I feel that this is part of a greater trend though where studios seem to think that the audience’s mind simply cannot comprehend the concept of a recast, which is just patronizing.
Weird, since the MCU has already recast people! And even if Marvel is supposed to reflect the world outside your window, they don’t normally kill off a character because a real person died.
Difference between recasting because of contract demands/assholery and someone dying.
Having said that, I don’t give a fuck if they recast William Hurt. Stephen Lang should have gotten that gig anyway.
It’s funny, because for me, Nick Nolte was born to play Ross. This made the Eric Bana movie very confusing.
they don’t normally kill off a character because a real person died.It’s actually not unheard of. Just off the top of my head, it happened when John Ritter died. It happened on Monk when the actor playing Dr. Kroger died. On Riverdale when Luke Perry died. It happened several times in The Simpsons. In The West Wing. In Newsradio. In Cheers. And I’m sure dozens other times. It’s primarily a matter of respect for the deceased.Why insist on having the same character recast when you can just have a different character that’s for all intents and purposes equivalent, without asking another actor to take the blunt of the hatred any recast will inevitably cause, whether the original actor is alive or not? The Marvel Universe is perfectly equipped to continue a hero’s legacy without using the same secret identity. It literally does it all the time. I honestly don’t get why this is even a discussion worth having.
By “they” I was referring to Marvel, not TV.
Uh? They don’t “normally” kill of a character because it never happened before. There’s no case history to establish what’s “normal”, this is a first for them.
Marvel has been around since 1961, lots of people have died in that time. The characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko etc have outlived them all.
Wut? How do you “recast” within a comic book? Obviously we’re talking of actual living being actors that died in actual real life.
There’s no “recasting” within a comic book, the character simply remains alive even if the person who was previously creating them (or served as an inspiration for them in real life) dies.
I am hard-pressed to think of where they actually cast a different actor for the same role after a death. Maybe some soap opera where those actors are basically interchangeable. But for anything on after 7 p.m. or that you see in a theater? No, I can’t think of anything.
The thing that bothers me the most is that nothing we heard or read about Boseman makes me think he wouldn’t have approved of the part being recast. Actors know that they don’t own the part they play; otherwise, no one would have played Shakespeare in centuries! T’Challa is a great character, independently of who plays him. It sucks that we won’t see him anymore because Feige wouldn’t do what needed to be done.
There’s nothing to say he would have approved either.
But why assume he wouldn’t have? We had 3 Spider-Men in 20 years, 2 War Machines in 12 years, 3 Hulks in 19 years… I think we currently have 3 Batmen. Why assume that Boseman would be the one actor who wouldn’t want his role passed on to a new actor?
Even his own brother thought the part should have been recast.
I’m not assuming he wouldn’t have. I’m saying that neither you, I or anything else have no clue what he would have wanted so there is no use speculating.
I am not speculating on what he would have wanted or not, I am pointing out how often parts are being recast and how that’s something actors have to deal with. I often see people saying that recasting would have been disrespectful to Boseman, which is unfair: people can be sad that he died and still wish the part had been recast.
I mean, you wrote “nothing we heard or read about Boseman makes me think he wouldn’t have approved of the part being recast,” which can obviously be interpreted as speculating about his state of mind. There are many issues at play in his recasting, including the very valid emotions of those who work on BP. Another argument is that it would be disrespectful to his memory (not him), which is referring to how people who knew him would react. And this is all talking about short term casting, in the long term, as with the many other parts that have not been recast, anything is possible. Sometimes parts don’t get recast, and that’s something the fans just have to deal with.
I mean, you wrote “nothing we heard or read about Boseman makes me think
he wouldn’t have approved of the part being recast,” which can
obviously be interpreted as speculating about his state of mind.
Pointing out the absence of evidence that he would disapprove of recasting is not like pretending that there is evidence he would approve. Anyway, hopefully it’s clear now so let’s move on.
There are many issues at play in his recasting, including the very valid emotions of those who work on BP. Another argument is that it would be disrespectful to his memory (not him), which is referring to how people who knew him would react.
As I said earlier, his own brother thought they should have recast. We tend to exaggerate the grief people feel when the deceased is famous, but really, grief is grief. I have lost many people I knew the last few years, some of them close to me. It sucks – it really does – but life goes on. Also, I really doubt it matters much to the cast and crew whether the person wearing the actor wearing the Black Panther suit is called T’Challa or not. Boseman is still missing and someone is still replacing him.
Sometimes parts don’t get recast, and that’s something the fans just have to deal with.
And how do fans deal with decisions they don’t like in properties they like? By discussing online with people who agree with them. Or disagree, depending on the case.I’m not going to cross the line and go harass Feige and Coogler online like other people do when non-white-male actors are cast. I can still maintain my respect while disagreeing with one of their decisions. But respect means telling the truth, and the truth is, I’m considerably less interested in a Suri-led Black Panther franchise.
“I really doubt it matters much to the cast and crew whether the person wearing the actor wearing the Black Panther suit is called T’Challa or not.”The actors and film makers, including Feige above, have talked about how great the loss of Boseman was and how that factored into their decision not to recast. I’m not sure whay they “just have to deal with it” as you said, and the fans do not. Sure, you’re entitled to feel how you feel (everyone does) and to discuss it. Others clearly disagree with you, including those who work on BP. I’m considerably more interested in the sequel knowing how deeply felt the loss of Boseman is and how they have handled it so far.
There is nothing we have heard or read about Boseman that makes me think he’d want the part recast either. He probably was too busy throwing up after chemo, spending as much time as he could with his family and finishing what professional jobs he had lined up to leave as much money behind as possible to think about what Arrowe77 wanted.Plus, let us be honest here, Internet. If Feige, a white guy, made the decision over the objection of Coogler to recast T’Challa, he’d be completely destroyed. There is no way Feige made this call without talking to Coogler, Boseman’s family and the rest of the cast.And again, I’ve said it like three times – What fish-brained actor is actually going to do this? If it’s someone with gravitas, experience and credibility, he probably is too smart and too established to do it (They fired the Sterling K. Brown bullet already, and that’s a shame, because I could see him… William Jackson Harper, maybe?)But if you go with an unknown, you’re risking him being a) bad b) completely unable to handle the baggage of taking over.
Terrence Howard or GTFO!
Strong disagree. Feige is exactly right, it’s too soon and Boseman’s life and death would loom too large, especially given Boseman’s impact as an actor outside of Black Panther. And while some will point out the roles that they have already recast, there are also plenty of examples where they haven’t, and places where they would never had dared. Imagine if RDJ had died before Endgame, would they have recast? Not in a million years. Plus at some point, the entire MCU will reboot and we will get recasting of everyone that has exited and not been recast: Black Widow, Captain, America, Iron Man, etc.
This is actually a morbid parlor game. Who would they recast? Who would they do a Paul Walker/F&F sendoff for? My head starts hurting when I think of what they do if this was Chris Evans or Chris Hemsworth in 2015, so I’ll just go with present day.Brie Larson? No, they have two other MarvelsElisabeth Olsen? God, I’m depressed already. No.Batch of Cumbers? Yeah… I kind of think they do.Paul Rudd? Fuck, I don’t want to play any more. I think they cobble something together with his outtakes and have the daughter/Wasp take over.Anthony Mackie? Yeah, I kind of think they do.Madisynn? Shut it all down. The MCU is dead. Put the flags at half-staff.
Obviously, there is only one Madisynn, now and forever.
Fully agreed. I’m sure if they recast, people would understand, given the circumstances. The trailer was great, but a I was surprised they straight up killed the character off. Even Fast and Furious kept Brian O’Connor alive. Burying T’challa along with Boseman rubs me the wrong way for some reason. It might be the feeling that no one else is ‘allowed’ the character in a sense I find possessive (a shame for a lot of great Black actors), but it might also be that exploitative thing you bring up.
Apparently holding off on the sequel until “the time was right to recast” was unthinkable, I guess because Disney needs to keep printing money
But if we do that how will we crucially tie the post credit sequence into one of the next movies? You’re talkin crazy here, Squid
Speak for yourself. I’m looking forward to Dr. Doom being revealed as the instigator of this war.
There are also the small matters of the schedules of Coogler and every other actor, not to mention all of the other cast and crew that earn salaries off these productions and the financial benefits to Atlanta, Boston and Puerto Rico.
Black Panther is literally a mantle that has been handed down for thousands of years. And they have a multiverse for people who can’t come until they get another actor to judge against Chadwick.
It doesn’t have to happen with this movie.
Yes, won’t someone please think of the billionaires and their salaries,!
Cool!Someone tell the production crew in Atlanta they are billionaires. I bet they’ll be happyAssclown
Well tell that to the Atlanta City Council then. With all the contoversies that made many studio pulled their production from Atlanta, Disney still film their movies there.
Which one? Will Smith? Is he even going to get to make a movie again?
lol of course he will. I’d put money on by 2025 if not sooner.
Well, in fairness he said “schedules” of the other actors, and “salaries” of the crews.
Nothing fair about this. This clown is one of those people who believes everyone who makes more than them is a billionaire.Although I’m sure Winston Duke, Martin Freeman and Angela Bassett would be thrilled to hear they are billionaires.
pretty sure this dude’s sched is wiiiide open
T’Challa will be played in perpetuity by Disney’s Boseman AI. I figure they’ll announce that sometime between T’Challa showing up in a post-credit sequence and the next Black Panther film being released.
Chadwick Bose-bot. Get it? Because it’s not a man? Tip your waitresses folks, I’ll be here all week.
They called it Bose-Droid in Disney. Unlike Walt Disney that turned into a cyborg and living/haunting Disneyworld.
It’s all fun and games until someone has to actually take the role. That’s a no-win situation for an actor.
And if Coogler just didn’t want to do it, that’s another strike against it.
They really should have recast. I love Chadwick too, but come on, HE is not Black Panther, he’s an actor.
Look I get that the movie’s getting closer to release and we’re always starved for headlines around here but isn’t this extremely old news? I feel like everyone had said this within months of his death.
New heroes taking on old titles is a common feature in comic books, and it feels like an organic evolution for the MCU’s future. Honestly, that’s more of a DC thing than Marvel. There have been multiple Robins, Green Lanterns, Flashes, etc., but I very few examples in Marvel books where a new character took an old name and it stuck. Captain Marvel (the name) went from the Kree character, to Monica Rambeau, to Carol Danvers…and there may be real-world copyright issues with keeping the title active. There have been multiple Ant-Man’s, Power Man’s, Goliath’s, etc., but rarely because the preceding name-holder died. Similarly, the name Ms. Marvel went from Danvers to Kamala Khan largely because the name was available.I can think of far more examples where a character took the name following the legacy character, only for the legacy character to return (Captain America, Wasp, Hawkeye, Thor, Iron Man, and to a lesser extent, Spider-Man). Marvel doesn’t seem to mind two characters sharing the same hero name, with Wolverine being another recent example.Ironically, the name with the most history of getting passed down through the generations is Black Panther. Ghost Rider & Black Knight are the only other ones I can think of which come close to doing this.
I think “a new hero takes on an old name” could apply to the Spider-Men, Wolverines, Hulks, etc. It doesn’t necessarily require that the old hero be dead or retired. If you mean “a character taking an old character’s name and completely replacing them such that they never use the name again,” that’s just way less common, even at DC. Dick Grayson has managed not to be Robin again most of the time, but all those Flashs and Green Lanterns have generally co-existed with at least one or two, and sometimes a whole space police force of, similarly named characters, usually including the originals. T’Challa doesn’t even come close, as he’s been Black Panther like 95% of the time since the character’s inception.
I have several reasons why I don’t really like this comics trope very much. But it is what it is, to keep these things going. The only legacy characters that work for me are the ones where it’s baked into the lore from the start. Like The Phantom. Or Green Lantern. And incidentally, Black Panther.
I would like to hear some of those reasons. It’s always made a ton of sense to me. A lot of these characters are just people in costumes. No reason someone else can’t put the costume on, or take the name.
“Just people in costumes” is a big reason why, lol. It reduces the hero. At best they become a “concept” rather than an individual. At worst, it feels like a 9-to-5 job where people can clock in or out or switch shifts. I’ve never cared for the idea that someone special could be so easily replaceable. Uniqueness and originality is more powerful to me. It’s also one of the things that makes comics more convoluted and confusing if you’re not keeping up. But above all else, I just think it’s lazy. However, I know I’m in the minority on all this.
I’m hazy on my Black Knight lore but I don’t think that one passes down very often. Like basically the sword keeps them from aging so the mantle only really passes when they get killed.It has also probably been 25 years minimum since I read anything with him so I could be conflating some things or just totally misremembering.
I’ve generally been more of a fan of the DC legacy hero thing, or at least they way they were doing it 20 years ago.For all of his other bullshit, Geoff Johns and David Goyer’s JSA was one of the best comics of its era and, building upon James Robinson’s Starman and Roy Thomas’ Infinity Inc, was great about building successors to many of those now-obscure 1940s-era characters.While they kept Alan Scott and Jay Garrick as Green Lantern and the Flash, we also got the joys of Stargirl, Atom Smasher, Mr Terrific, Hourman and many more.JSA was also hugely successful in its work with Black Adam and Captain Marvel (Shazam).
My guess is this movie is a memorial / tribute to Chadwick/T’Challa and come Kang Dynasty and/or (probably) Secret Wars there’s a multiverse waggle and in comes an alt-verse T’Challa played by a new actor.
I’m fine with whatever choice they make regarding Black Panther vis-à-vis recasting or not recasting as long as Shuri does end up taking on that mantle. Not that Disney would or should care, but if that’s the case I’m not going anywhere near that movie.
al I know is I’ve seen the Wakanda Returns trailer many times in the theathre now and it still gives me goosebumps (unlike that don’t worry darling trailer and smile which I’m sick of seeing ). the combination of the Bob Marley and Kendrick songs, and as a Latino, the Prince Namor sequences that just tease enough about them that has me so pumped up for this movie, and that reveal at the end when Kendrick says “and when I wake up” and you saw Black Panther’s claws, even typing this im getting goosebumps. such a well made trailer.
If they had recast him early on they would have been crucified. Boseman had recently died and he was hugely popular. If you had done so too soon it would have immediately been seen as just replacing one black actor with another because they think no one would know the difference. I actually saw that on boards a few times when people started speculating on what to do with the character when he first died. The overwhelming cry was to “give it to Shuri”. The actress’s vax stance has soured many on that now. But that ship sailed long ago and the film production was already well underway at the time.
“New heroes taking on old titles is a common feature in comic books, and it feels like an organic evolution for the MCU’s future.”Yeah, except Black Panther was meant to be Captain America’s replacement.
Poor Falcon, over her like, “What am I? Chopped liver?”
Headline: Kevin Feige felt it was “much too soon” after Chadwick Boseman’s death to recast Black PantherArticle:“While for many fans it would undoubtedly feel inappropriate for there to suddenly be another T’Challa, Feige and Coogler clearly didn’t feel it was too soon to have a character assume the mantle.”Can both of these be accurate? Isn’t having an existing character played by an actor become the BLack Panther recasting the role?
A new Black Panther, not a new T’Challa. The king dies while the superhero lives on.
Seems to me the mantle was passed on 3 times in the films already, so I’m fine with it (T’Chaka to T’Challa to Killmonger back to T’Challa).If the cast and crew and mostly everyone directly involved with working with Boseman wanted to move forward in this way, I’m fine with that. The whole conceit of the Black Panther title is that it gets passed on anyway.
OK, I completely forgot one instance where this has been done. Michael Gambon replaced Richard Harris as Dumbledore. So there’s that, but a few reasons why the parallel doesn’t work.1) When you cast a 70-something who lived the life Harris did, you already have a backup plan in your head, especially for a series that was set to last another 10 years.2) There isn’t the cultural issue. I keep coming back to the idea that the Internet would have already canceled Feige’s non-existent great-great-great grandchildren had he overrode Coogler (or ran Coogler off) to recast T’Challa.3) The fact is, you can have a Black Panther series and an MCU without T’Challa. There’s Shuri, Okoye, Nakia, M’Baku, resurrected Kilmonger, or a new character. You can’t have Harry Potter without Dumbledore.I’ve been looking for examples and Gambon/Harris is the only thing close. Some listicles are trying to make the Ledger thing hunt, but we have no idea if he’d have gone anywhere near Suicide Squad or that Joker solo if he’d lived. I think I’ve read that he’d only have been in the Judge Scarecrow part in Dark Knight Rises anyway. The Paul Walker thing doesn’t quite work either. I mean, if Boseman’s family had wanted/approved an idea to cobble together voice over and CGI to give T’Challa an “I Love You 3000″ type speech, maybe. But that can go only go right one way and can go wrong 1,008,941 ways. And for all we know, that idea has already been floated and they literally just don’t have enough material to work with even if they wanted to. Remember, Walker had already filmed quite a bit of that last movie before he was killed.This just is unprecedented stuff here. I don’t believe you recast, but I can see the arguments. I just don’t blame Feige and the production team for erring on the side of not recasting.
Chadwick died, not T’Challa. Should’ve re-casted and it’s not without precedence. Spartacus, Andy Whitfiled died of leukemia and was replaced by Liam McIntyre after a few years hiatus while they figured out what to do next. It worked brilliantly. They could have waited to let people grieve and pressed on with the script I’m sure they already had ready. Now we get this thing that’s going to be weird because how are they going to show T’Challa dying? Will it be off screen? Will it be some stunt guy in the suit falling off a cliff? I am curious and the trailer is powerful but it seems like a lot of work for nothing.
I get it recasting is going to happen, they have a simple way to do it already. You’ve introduced the multiverse with multiple Spider-man’s…men…Spiders-man…whatever, do the same with T’Challa. Drive a truck of that Disney money to Michael B. Jordan’s house and dump it on his front lawn. The Erick from this universe was actually embraced by Wakanda and grew up a hero. You even have a new conflict as the family juggles him looking like Killmonger and the new threats that are Namor/Kang. Which give him a chance to “prove himself.”
I’ll take my monies now please and thank you.
I would waaay have preferred they recast T’Challa than elevate an anti-vaxxer.