Winston Duke reacts to Black Panther fans who wanted Chadwick Boseman to be recast
The decision to prioritize other characters in the world of Wakanda has been contentious
Aux News Chadwick Boseman
[This post contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.]
Yes, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now out in the world, but some Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are still taking issue with the sequel’s decision to prioritize other characters in the world of Wakanda instead of recasting King T’Challa after the surprising 2020 death of Chadwick Boseman. One person who isn’t particularly concerned with their opinion is Winston Duke, who stars as M’Baku.
“…they center their own need for a character when none of this would be possible if the people who brought this to life didn’t participate, from behind the scenes to in front of it,” the Us actor says in a new interview with Esquire.
Following Boseman’s death, writer/director Ryan Coogler and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige concluded that not recasting the role would be the most respectful way to proceed. Though it meant that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would not bring the established comics rivalry between T’Challa and Namor the Sub-Mariner to the screen, it also spared a new actor the impossible task of having to fill Boseman’s shoes both amongst a grieving cast and crew and the legions of fans who made the first installment over a billion dollars at the box office.
“There’s no way they’ll never remake Black Panther in the future,” Duke tells Esquire. “There’s no way that the saga and interpretation of T’Challa, King of Wakanda, will end. He is canon. So trust that it’ll come. But allow this to be a human experience.”
Sure enough, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever concludes with the promise that T’Challa’s story is not over. In the post-credits sequence, it’s revealed that the Wakandan king and Nakia secretly had a son, also named T’Challa. While the new heir to the throne is still a child, there’s no doubt that he’ll be back when the pain of Boseman’s death is not so fresh. This also opens up other possibilities for faithfully depicting other elements from the comics in the future. For example, T’Challa has been married to Storm, and the MCU is just barely starting to introduce mutants, with no hints as to when the X-Men will form.
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Though it meant that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would not
bring the established comics rivalry between T’Challa and Namor the
Sub-Mariner to the screen, it also spared a new actor the impossible
task of having to fill Boseman’s shoes both amongst a grieving cast and
crew and the legions of fans who made the first installment over a
billion dollars at the box office.
This sentence has both and amongst transposed.
Saw the movie last night and it was amazing. Would love to see M’Baku be the new Black Panther, he has all of the qualities. Strong, compassionate, loved and trusted by his people.
Yeah, but he’s a man, so not happening.
Cry more. Please keep crying. Cry, cry, cry.
I love that incels react to not getting attention from women by hating women instead of, you know, not being ragged little whiny cunts.
Don’t worry: he’ll get the role when the anti-vaxxer dies from a preventable infection.
Honestly his response should’ve just been barking them into silence.
Glory to Hannuman.
It’s insane to think they’d recast T’Challa in this timeline. Chadwick Boseman was titanic in that role. Recentering the movie around the other characters’ grief was a masterstroke, and the only real way forward.
I think you’re right that there was no way Marvel was going to recast him, but I also think that people would have gotten over it pretty quickly. They’re basically recasting it with his son who has the same name anyway. Wakanda Forever felt inert in a weird way. It’s a shame they couldn’t have had Nakia be Black Panther, since they gave her nothing to do.
Let’s be real, the shouts to recast T’Challa has nothing to do with “the decision prioritize other characters in the world of Wakanda” and everything to do with angry nerds hating BP2 was a black female lead movie.
Let’s be real, complaints about nerds hating BP2 because it has a Black Woman replacing T’Challa are unfounded posturing from social media social justice activists who come out of the woodwork 100x more often than the actual bigots do.
if it was another area id agree with you, but with comics there are lots of crazy bigots, the sjw’s arent making this shit up. Of course, no, theyre not the majority, but theyre loud.
Maybe they just hate Letitia Wright and think casting her as BP is fucking stupid. I wouldve been fine with either of the actresses who played Okoye or Nakia doing it.
Shuri is the only other character that has been Black Panther, and it’s a hereditary role.Breaking with that would have been fucking stupider.
I was disappointed in who inherited the mantle (even though I was 99% certain, and I was right); I was rooting for Nakia.
I don’t understand why it would be “stupider” to give the suit and the synthetic heart-shaped herb to a non-royal-blood. It’s a fucking COMIC BOOK MOVIE … if the writers can’t come up with a good in-universe explanation to give it to Nakia, who is actually super-interesting and not problematic in the real world, the writers should be fired.
I’ve been a comic book nerd for — checks notes — 42 full years now, and my appeal to (my own) authority says that Nakia would have been a fantastic Black Panther.
The writers should be paying attention to the characters, not how the actors behave in the real world.Your issues with the actor playing Shuri aren’t more compelling than the fact that the title went to the next in line in the hereditary line of Black Panthers that goes back to the first one, a character who has a long legacy of holding the title in the comics, rather than the expatriate character you like that becomes a villain in the comics.I believe that you’ve read comics for decades, but don’t pretend that that has anything to do with your position on this.
I’m curious: should Robert De Niro never work again?
I was kind of hoping that Nakia would become the Black Panther as well, because I think Nakia is great and this movie needed more Nakia.This is only, like, 40% because I have a bit of a crush on Lupita Nyong’o. 50%.65%, absolute maximum.
“and everything to do with angry nerds hating BP2 was a black female lead movie.”
Sure.
I mean, a lot of people just didn’t want it to be fronted by someone who put lives at risk and is vocally anti-vax but swings and roundabouts.
Cool, but lets start with Evangeline Lily since we know she’s worse.
Probably a lot of that but I am sure there were also a lot of people who were more invested in the character than the actor. Of course, they probably weren’t the ones shouting shit on the internet. You generally don’t do that about pop culture if you are not actually reacting to a larger issue. At least I don’t. I would have preferred to see a new actor cast just because i think it’s always fun to see a new interpretation. However, since the people actually involved in making the movie thought that would be inappropriate, i’m content with the end product.
So the more respectful thing to Boseman and Black Panther’s legacy is to give the fans what a majority of them consider an irritatingly insufferable gender swapped stand-in absolutely no one asked for?