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November 29 marks the birthday of Chadwick Boseman, and he would have turned 44 this year if he hadn’t passed back in August. To pay tribute to Boseman, Disney and Marvel have teamed up to change the intro of the Black Panther movie on Disney+ to a more T’Challa-centric one.
Check it out:
Long live the King. #WakandaForever pic.twitter.com/uW1KisOkTq
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) November 29, 2020
Multiple tributes have come out for Boseman online, both from his fans and close colleagues. Lupita Nyong’o had tweeted about Boseman:
Deeply loved, sorely missed. #ChadwickBoseman pic.twitter.com/cMYOnJ4PnN
— Lupita Nyong'o (@Lupita_Nyongo) November 29, 2020
For now, Marvel is in a very tough position when it comes to moving forward with the Black Panther franchise. Boseman had only been the lead in one solo film, and no other character had been set up to be his successor. While Shuri might seem to be the logical choice, some think that she could be too young to take over the Black Panther mantle for now. Some are also looking at M’Baku actor Winston Duke to take over as the new Black Panther, but surely Marvel has other options on the drawing board.
Recasting could be an option to give T’Challa’s character a proper and meaningful arc, but I’m sure that a lot of fans want Boseman to be the only face of T’Challa in the MCU.
Thanks to the Coronavirus, the MCU has been put on an indefinite hold, but this buys Marvel a lot more time for planning for the future. Hopefully they come up with something that pays tribute to Boseman and meaningfully pushes the franchise forward.
As of now, the Black Panther sequel is set to release on May 6, 2022.
