Chadwick Boseman’s death shook the whole world. It was unexpected, and everyone, from fans to his co-stars and even his employers, had no idea how to process it. Soon after his passing, there were questions about the making of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Social media sites like Twitter were filled with fans asking if the movie was even going to be made. Ultimately, it was indeed made and released. But many wondered if Disney put down a strict mandate on compulsorily making the movie. Now, an MCU producer has finally addressed these questions.
Marvel Producer Addresses Disney’s Approach To Chadwick Boseman’s Death
In a Deadline interview, Marvel producer Nate Moore talked about how Disney reacted to Boseman’s sudden death. He said that initially, it was difficult to process the news of Boseman’s demise emotionally. After that, everyone questioned if they should even make the film. In the beginning, they didn’t have an answer because everyone was figuring out how to respond to the loss of a friend, they had made two films with. Thankfully, Disney never pressured them to make the film. Instead, they said that if Marvel didn’t want to, then there wasn’t any need to make the film. In fact, Disney said that they didn’t have to make the film just for them.
To decide whether or not to make the film, Kevin Feige and Nate Moore reached out to Simone Boseman, Chadwick Boseman’s widow. After conversations with her, the duo decided to go ahead with making the film because Chadwick would have wanted them to make it even if he wasn’t there. The next thing they had to address was recasting. Moore says that recasting T’Challa never crossed his mind. He couldn’t imagine going up to cast members like Letitia Wright or Angela Bassett and announcing that there was going to be a new actor playing T’Challa. Moore said that he also didn’t go for recasting because he couldn’t emotionally get behind that idea.
How Marvel Studios Handled T’Challa’s Absence In ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’?
After deciding that they were going to make “Black Panther 2” without recasting, the next topic to sort out was how to narratively address Boseman’s death in a way that felt honest. Initially, the idea was to kill off T’Challa during an off-screen fight sequence. But it was scrapped because the idea was thought to be crazy. Also, Moore said that Marvel Studios decided not to go against what everyone was experiencing as a community. So, they decided to be authentic in the situation. Moore states that having the King of Wakanda die due to illness felt like a genuine answer to the problem since that would also respect reality. He wanted the characters in the film to grieve a situation that fans were going through so that everyone could undergo a collective cathartic experience. Nate also said that Marvel Studios cleared every plan and every little step with Simone Boseman because they didn’t want to do something the Boseman family disliked.
Initial Script Of ‘Black Panther 2’
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” director Ryan Coogler has discussed what the initial script ideas were for Black Panther 2. He said that the film was going to be a father-son story set after “Avengers: Endgame.” The plot was about T’Challa returning after the Blip and finding out that he has a son with Nakia. So T’Challa and Nakia would co-parent their son, and on the eighth birthday of his child, T’Challa would take him for a hunt. But things would go wrong, and he would have to solve the issue with his small child beside him. While we didn’t get to see this on the big screen, the version we got certainly addressed the tragic loss of the beloved actor.
Also, thankfully, there’s one MCU movie that will address the father-child dynamic and the theme of losing time due to the Blip. That film is “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” As per the trailers released for the movie, we will get to see Scott and Kang strike a deal where the former will get the villain something he wants in return for time. This is because all Scott wants is more time with his daughter, Cassie. It’s speculated that his hunt for more time is because he missed out on crucial years with his daughter, who is now a young adult. Also, in the recently released trailer, we see Cassie Lang in prison. So, it’s possible that Scott feels he has failed to be a good father and wants to correct that. But everything is going to go wrong because it doesn’t look like Kang will hold up his end of the deal. Or will he?
How the fight between Scott Lang and Kang ultimately turns out will be seen when “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” debuts in theaters on February 17, 2023.
See more: Decoding The Marvel Fatigue: Is It Real? Or A Creation Of The Internet Echo Chamber?
