Today marks one year after the tragic passing of the 43-year-old Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman. On August 28th, 2020, the world lost a great actor and the Marvel Cinematic Universe lost a rising legend. Fans were fortunate to see Boseman star as T’Challa/Black Panther on four films — Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
The Oscar-nominated star was able to lend his voice to Marvel’s What If…? series, which featured the star playing T’Challa one last time. Many fans and friends of Boseman already took to social media today to honor Boseman’s one-year anniversary of his death.
Marvel Studios Remembers Chadwick Boseman
“We didn’t know it would be his final performance obviously,” Kevin Feige recently told Variety on the red carpet for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings when asked about Boseman’s role in What If. “He came in numerous times, was so gung ho about it, was so excited about it… He read the episode that airs 24 hours from now and then came back and said, ‘I really love this version of T’Challa.’ And we had a conversation after that with Ryan [Coogler] about ‘How do we get some of this voice,’ none of the storyline, but just some of that voice into Panther 2. Now of course it’s remarkably sad and bittersweet, but I’m very happy we have it and I’m very happy he did it for us. I’m excited for the fans to see that as well.”
As for the upcoming Black Panther sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the film has gone through many alterations since the Black Panther star passed away. According to Angela Basset (Ramonda), the sequel has gone through five different scripts.
In a recent interview, Lupito Nyong’o (Nakie) praised Black Panther director Ryan Coogler for his leadership during these difficult times.
“People will ask me, ‘Are you excited to go back?’ Excitement isn’t the word. I feel like I’m in a very pensive and meditative state when it comes to Black Panther 2. [Chadwick’s] passing is still extremely raw for me,” Nyong’o told Yahoo!. “And I can’t even begin to imagine what it will be like to step on set and not have him there… But at the same time we have a leader in Ryan, who feels very much like we do, who feels the loss in a very, very real way as well.”
Our thoughts are with Chadwick Boseman’s friends and family on this one year anniversary of his passing.
“Honoring our friend, our inspiration and our King, Chadwick Boseman,” says Marvel Studios post. See the tweet below:
Honoring our friend, our inspiration and our King, Chadwick Boseman. pic.twitter.com/hpgocpe24p
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) August 28, 2021
