Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” lost Chadwick Boseman, who played its leading man T’Challas in the first film, after the film was announced but before he had shot any scenes.
As a result, the project ended up being heavily retooled. Rather than recast, filmmaker Ryan Coogler pivoted the project to deal with the repercussions of the loss of Boseman’s character in an upfront way.
In a large profile piece with THR, actress Lupita Nyong’o and Coogler discussed what the original version of the film would have looked like with Boseman’s T’Challa still in the lead. Coogler says:
“Losing your centerpiece, everything changed. When you say the world rotated around him, it revolved around him, it did. The script we wrote before Chadwick passed was very much rooted in T’Challa’s perspective. It was a massive movie but also simultaneously a character study that delved deeply into his psyche and situation.”
Nyong’o says she supports Marvel’s decision not to recast, and the death became central to what they came up with in which a country mourns the passing of its leader:
“That is not the death of the Black Panther, that’s the whole point. It’s laying to rest [T’Challa] and allowing for real life to inform the story of the movies. I know that there are all sorts of reasons why people want him to be recast, but I don’t have the patience. I don’t have the presence of mind, or I don’t have the objectivity to argue with that. I don’t. I’m very biased.”
Producer Nate Moore adds that it’s right for the new film to welcome in a new person as Black Panther
“The Black Panther has existed in Wakanda for centuries, so the notion of someone else picking up the mantle didn’t seem inorganic. But once that had to become a reality, then it was, ‘OK, what makes the most sense for the story? Who actually makes the most sense to take this thing on?’ All of the characters in the film have a different idea of who should don the mantle and why.”
Whilst marketing materials would suggest his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright), there are rumors it could be another character with Nyong’o’s warrior Nakia on the list. Asked if that’s the case, N’yongo says: “If I told you that, I might as well just … swim into the ocean and never be seen again.”
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” debuts in cinemas on November 11th.
