Kevin Feige has stated that Black Panther 2 will “respect Chadwick Boseman’s legacy” by not recasting T’Challa, but fans want to remember the late actor in another way: by having Boseman’s beloved character live on in the MCU.
Boseman, who portrayed the African monarch and superhero in Captain America: Civil War in 2016, Black Panther in 2018, and the Avengers sequels Infinity War and Endgame, died last August at the age of 43, following a four-year struggle with colon cancer. Later, Feige and fellow Black Panther producer Nate Moore affirmed that Marvel Studios, which is now working on the sequel Wakanda Forever, will never replace Boseman’s position in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“You will not see T’Challa in the MCU 616 Universe. We couldn’t do it,” Moore, executive producer of Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, told Ringer-Verse last month. “When [Chadwick] passed, there was a real conversation we had with [director Ryan] Coogler about what do we do, and it was a fast conversation. It wasn’t weeks, it was minutes of discussing how we move this franchise forward without this character because I think we all feel so much of T’Challa on the screen is tied to Chadwick Boseman.”
The actor’s brother, Derrick Boseman, reportedly told TMZ that Chadwick would have wanted T’Challa to continue in the MCU. Paraphrasing Derrick’s comments, TMZ reported “Chadwick thought T’Challa was bigger than just himself as one guy.”
