Chadwick Boseman at the premiere of “Black Panther” in Los Angeles in 2018. Associated Press file
It felt “much too soon” to recast Chadwick Boseman’s character in the upcoming “Black Panther” movie after the actor’s death, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said in a new interview.
Boseman, who played the superhero T’Challa in the first “Black Panther” film, died in August 2020 at age 43 following a private battle with colon cancer. Co-written and directed by Ryan Coogler, the sequel “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” arrives in theaters Nov. 11.
“It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” Feige told Empire magazine in a story out Monday. “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 Ryan poured that into the story.”
The first “Black Panther” was a massive hit, grossing more than $1.3 billion globally while earning rave reviews from critics and audiences.
Boseman’s character is the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda who suits up as the heroic Black Panther to defend his people.
Little is known about the plot of the upcoming movie, which stars Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke and Danai Gurira.
“The conversations were entirely about, yes, ‘What do we do next?’” Feige told Empire. “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.”
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