Black Panther is one of Marvel’s biggest superheroes, especially after the runaway success that was the Black Panther movie. The character himself is seen as an idol for black achievement. The world of Wakanda is the most popular portrayal of Afrofuturism in mainstream culture. The movie itself does have some flaws, especially some of the problematic aspects of the worldbuilding, but on the whole Black Panther is deserving of its success.
In 2020, Chadwick Boseman, the actor who portrayed T’Challa on-screen tragically passed away due to cancer. When discussing the continuation of the movies, the absence of Chadwick has thrown the entire Black Panther series into question. Would they recast T’Challa and continue the narrative they had planned? Or would they write his death offscreen, working around the absence of one of the most well-known and impactful characters in the MCU?
The main issue is that Black Panther was not a secondary character. He was a main character whom the MCU wanted to make a pivotal one; similar to Iron Man or Captain America. With his future called into question, the entire future of the MCU is uncertain.
Marvel has recently announced that T’Challa would not be recast in the MCU. I’m sympathetic to the reasoning for the refusal to recast him. Chadwick’s portrayal was iconic and recasting T’Challa only a year or two after the actor’s death would be disrespectful. Especially since it would promote a view that actors are replaceable cogs in an MCU machine. There’s also the fact that any new actor for T’Challa would be constantly compared to Chadwick; no one wants to deal with that.
However, there are many good reasons to recast T’Challa. Maybe not immediately, but at some point in the future. But before I get into my explanation, its important to note that I am not Black nor do I claim to speak for Black people. I want to make observations regarding Black Panther’s cultural impact and make a case for the value of his continued presence.
First, its important to recognize that Black Panther, as a character, has existed before most of us have been born. The character was created in 1966. Since then, he’s been an important symbol for black representation in comic books in a time when black characters were unpopular, let alone African superheroes. Even now, where many black superheroes exist as sidekicks, spin-offs, or race-swaps of popular white superheroes, T’Challa has always existed independently and without existing in anyone else’s shadow. This is a character that is important in-universe and in the real world, to lock away all that potential is a waste.
Let us not forget that characters are recast all the time. There are dozens of cinematic spidermen, batmen, supermen, jokers, james bonds, and so on. Professor Dumbledore from Harry Potter was recast after the original actor passed away as well. Yes, much of this is motivated by companies wanting to continue making money from bankable characters and franchises. But its also because these characters and what they represent are bigger than any single portrayal by an actor. Everyone has their favorite version of these characters, but the character itself, the idea, is bigger than all.
To be clear, I would be against recasting Captain America or Iron Man in the MCU. Partly for the aforementioned reasons; Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr’s portrayals of these characters immortalized them. But most importantly, both of them have complete character arcs. They appeared in a whole slew of movies and we got to see these characters grow, develop, and eventually pass on. There’s a sense of closure. If Marvel were to simply recast these characters, it would cheapen their stories.
However, if Marvel has an idea for another movie in a different universe, they can and should recast those characters. Because Iron Man and Captain America have been around longer than RDJ and Chris Evans and we shouldn’t lock them away because we don’t want anything new.
T’Challa never had that narrative closure. He starred in one movie and cameoed in a few others. He was at the beginning of his narrative journey. Its obvious Marvel had a lot of plans for the character and by refusing to recast T’Challa, we’ll never get to see those plans to fruition. Instead, T’Challa is left feeling like an incomplete character; having never achieved his character arc or developing at the same level as Iron Man. And to me, that’s a particular shame because Black Panther is such a great under-represented character who means so much to a lot of people.
Its likely they’ll kill T’Challa offscreen and attempt to have Shuri or M’baku take on the mantle. Not only will this make storytelling extremely challenging, but those characters would still live in the shadow of T’Challa. Also, I’m not excited about Letitia Wright, who is known to spout anti-vaccine misinformation, being the next Black Panther. I wouldn’t be surprised if she pulls a Gina Carano and gets into trouble on Twitter. Perhaps M’Baku can take the mantle, I really enjoyed his character in the movie.
However, either choice is inferior to just recasting T’Challa. A recast would allow the MCU to continue the story they wanted to tell with T’Challa, albeit with a different leading man. It would allow T’Challa to keep existing as symbol for all the young kids out there to look up to. Who knows, maybe the new T’Challa might be someone’s preferred portrayal? Everyone has their favorite Spider-Man, why not Black Panther?
To be clear, I’m not advocating we simply recast T’Challa immediately. It’s far too soon for that. I’m saying that Marvel should delay Black Panther 2 a few years then eventually announce that they’re recasting T’Challa. In the next few movies, have the new actor cameo in an end credit scene or something. After a few years have passed, people might be more receptive towards a recasting, especially if handled delicately and with respect to Chadwick’s original work. Many of Marvel’s stories revolve around multiverse shenanigans, so there’s nothing stopping you from writing an alternate universe T’Challa who comes into the MCU.
Again, this isn’t an easy decision. Nor is it guaranteed to go over well with every single person. But it can be done, and I’d rather see T’Challa return than leave him incomplete and unfulfilled with an unceremonious offscreen death. The last time Disney dealt with this, it was Star Wars and the passing of Carrie Fisher and look how that turned out.
Dar Al-Tadabur 