On August 28, 2020, Chadwick Boseman died at the age of 43 from complications related to colon cancer. Four years later, fans are naturally paying their respects today to the man who portrayed T’Challa, a.k.a. the first Black Panther, in four of the Marvel movies in order. The honoring of Boseman has also prompted debate about if T’Challa should be recast in the MCU, a topic that’s been discussed in length since his passing.
Rather than hire a new actor to play T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel Studios and filmmaker Ryan Coogler decided to have T’Challa die offscreen at the beginning of the 2022 movie, and his sister, Letitia Wright’s Shuri, later embraced the Black Panther mantle during Wakanda’s conflict against Namor. Nevertheless, there are still many who like to see someone else leave their stamp on T’Challa, which would be possible by pulling in a variant from elsewhere in the Marvel multiverse. @CloudyTrillion had this to say on the matter while sharing some images of Black Panther from the comics alongside Storm, with whom he was married for several years:
I’ve said this a thousand times. T’challa’s character is so important. Chadwick’s portrayal will be hard to match. But it is time to #recasttchalla 🗣️🗣️
As seen in projects like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Loki and the recent appearance of The Cavillrine in Deadpool & Wolverine, multiverse variants don’t always have the same physical appearance, so it wouldn’t be difficult at all to have a new actor fill T’Challa’s shoes. @Nichola857139 believes that this should be a role that many actors should get to tackle, just like what’s been done with Spider-Man, Superman and Batman:
We have multiple Superman actors, multiple Spider-Man actors and multiple Batman actors but we have one actor that has played TChalla and that's Chadwick boseman. We should have a actor play TChalla now and multiple actors to play TChalla for the years to come. #RecastTChalla
One of the ways the anniversary of Chadwick Boseman’s death was commemorated was by someone sharing the portion of the Avengers: Infinity War trailer that showed snippets of scenes set in Wakanda, including when T’Challa let out the war cry, “Yibambe!” This led @Brother_Stark to say:
#recasttchalla is NOT Chadwick Boseman disrespect. This scene had me in tears when I first saw it. Chadwick poured his heart and soul into the role to give a character he loved representation. He gave the energy to his fans whose heart and soul is representation. His wishes
That’s not to say that everyone supports T’Challa being recast, though, or at least not bringing it up on the 4th anniversary of Chadwick Boseman’s passing. @goforloki wrote this:
chadwick boseman passed 4 years ago today and yall are using his memory to trend #recasttchalla ??? what happened to decorum. what happened to shame.
Finally, to end on a supportive note for the recasting debate, @yungstorydawood said this:
RIP Chadwick Boseman. He played many great roles. BP being on of his most notable ones. He did a phenomenal job as Tchalla. He should not be the last tho. He believed in oppurtunities for the next actors. If we want to honor him. They should #RecastTchalla. Continue the legacy.
One thing worth remembering is that whether or not another actor is cast to take over as the original Black Panther, there is still a character named T’Challa who exists in the main MCU reality. It was revealed in the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever mid-credits scene that T’Challa and Nakia had a son who was initially introduced as Toussaint, but his Wakandan name was T’Challa, too. That doesn’t mean, though, that he’ll become Black Panther when he’s an adult like his father did.
For now, Shuri continues to operate as Black Panther, although when we’ll see her again is uncertain, as Black Panther 3 isn’t officially on the upcoming Marvel movies slate, and there’s been no mention of her being involved in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. As for Chadwick Boseman, you can revisit his Black Panther performances with a Disney+ subscription.
