On August 28, 2020, news broke that Chadwick Boseman unexpectedly died at the age of 43.
The actor, who was famous for playing T'Challa, the MCU's Black Panther and King of Wakanda,
was easily one of the greatest and most influential stars of our time.
Boseman passed away after a four-year-long battle with colon cancer.
In fact, he was fighting the disease throughout the four years he made his last seven movies.
When Boseman's official Twitter account broke the tragic news, the world was in shock.
The outpouring of love from the actor's fans and fellow celebrities was immediate and heartfelt.
People paid their respects and fondly remembered his many great roles, as well as the way his
role as T'Challa proved that representation matters.
Apart from the vast human and cultural tragedy of Boseman's death, it also created a difficult
problem for Disney and its subsidiary Marvel Studios.
Black Panther is already a billion-dollar cinematic entity, and Boseman would arguably
have been the most beloved and bankable star of the next few phases of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe.
With the actor's popularity and the character's in-universe role as an intelligent superhero
with access to amazing technology, Boseman's T'Challa was essentially the current MCU's
answer to former franchise lynchpin Tony Stark.
So, how is Disney dealing with this difficult and heartbreaking situation?
Disney representatives say they're not focused on figuring out what to do with Black Panther
2, at least, not quite yet.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, sources within the Disney corporation have stated
that the company is, quote, "processing the grief of a loved one," and paying homage to
Boseman.
As such, they have no immediate plans to shift focus to the Black Panther sequel, and aren't
offering up any details about what such a sequel would even look like, as of the making
of this video.
Boseman wanted to keep his illness as private as possible.
As such, only a few people outside his family knew about his cancer diagnosis and subsequent
battle at all.
The MCU at large, in fact, was so deeply in the dark about Boseman's situation that the
news only reached Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige's inbox on the day the Black Panther
actor died.
As such, the MCU's reaction to Boseman's death was that of stunned heartbreak, followed by
touching memories of their beloved co-star and friend.
Robert Downey Jr. even called Boseman and his achievements the high point of the entire
MCU.
"Black Panther is hands down, it is the crowning achievement of the Marvel universe."
The Iron Man star elaborated to Good Morning America,
"It was the one where people got to vote with their ticket sales and say: 'We require this
overdue diversity.'"
At some point Disney and Marvel executives will have to lift the veil of sorrow and ask
themselves the difficult question: How should things go forward without Boseman?
"I am not ready to be without you."
Disney has faced this uniquely tragic situation before, unfortunately.
In 2016, the company had to figure out how to proceed with The Rise of Skywalker when
the esteemed Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, died at 60.
In the same vein, Universal had to painstakingly recreate Paul Walker when the actor passed
away in a car accident as shooting Fast & Furious 7 was taking place.
However, Boseman was the star of his own, incredibly successful movie, and he was a
major player in the notoriously interconnected MCU in general.
While Disney could cancel Black Panther 2 and quietly write T'Challa out of the MCU,
seeing as the first movie was a cultural, critical, and financial success and that Boseman's
death will have to be addressed in some fashion, some believe that's an unlikely outcome.
Other observers think that the company could try to replace Boseman with another actor,
but that's bound to cause a massive outcry, and for good reason.
Knowing this, many think that a better option might be to take a page from the comic books
and hand the Black Panther mantle to Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister, played by Letitia
Wright.
The tenacious and tech-savvy Shuri is a popular character, and her ascension to full Black
Panther-hood is already something fans want to see in Black Panther 2.
This idea has even pushed some fans to start petitioning for Disney and Marvel to tap Shuri
to become the next Black Panther.
Regardless of what's going to happen, the MCU, and the world, has lost a true giant
in Chadwick Boseman.
As Black Panther director Ryan Coogler put it:
"I spent the last year preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say that we weren't
destined to see.
It leaves me broken knowing that I won't be able to watch another close-up of him in the
monitor again or walk up to him and ask for another take."
Our thoughts are with Boseman's friends and family during this time of grief.