Marvel Exec Says Chadwick Boseman Will Never Be Recast As Black Panther

His legacy will stay preserved.

Chadwick Boseman Black Panther Captain America Civil War Marvel Kevin Feige

Marvel Vice President of Development Nate Moore says the studio will never recast Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman.

Chadwick Boseman made his debut as Black Panther in 2016’s Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Civil War to thunderous applause. The character later returned in his own solo film in 2018, which went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time. The solo film was marked as a cultural milestone and a sequel as quickly commissioned. Unfortunately, Boseman tragically passed in 2020.

The sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, recently paused production so lead star Letitia Wright could recover from her on-set injury. Reports have suggested that Wright will be taking on the Black Panther mantle in the Marvel sequel, though that hasn’t been confirmed as of yet. One thing appears to be certain: Chadwick Boseman will never be recast as Black Panther.

Marvel Studios Vice President of Development Nate Moore told Ringer-Verse that he and the creative team at Marvel have no plans to recast Boseman’s T’Challa.

“I’ll say the chances that you see T’Challa in our – I’m not hedging my bets here, I am being quite honest. You will not see T’Challa in the MCU 616 Universe. We couldn’t do it.”

“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 Marvel exec then continued by discussing the difficulty of working on the sequel in the wake of Boseman’s passing, but how it was crucial to not regress and recast the star.

“As hard as it is narratively to figure out what to do next because that’s a big hole, at no point did we consider recasting. The challenge for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is how to tell a story without T’Challa, and it’s a challenge we are up for.”

Here is the synopsis for the first Black Panther film:

After the death of his father, the king of Wakanda, young T’Challa returns home to the isolated high-tech African nation to succeed to the throne and take his rightful place as king. But when a powerful enemy reappears, T’Challa’s mettle as king – and Black Panther – is tested when he’s drawn into a formidable conflict that puts the fate of Wakanda and the entire world at risk. Faced with treachery and danger, he must release the full power of Black Panther to defeat his foes and secure the safety of his people and their way of life.

Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on July 8, 2022. Stay tuned for all the latest news surrounding Letitia Wright’s future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and be sure to subscribe to Heroic Hollywood’s YouTube channel for more original video content!

Source: Ringer-Verse