A character’s death mirroring real-life.
The change in direction the script had to take to reflect the tragic passing.
Keep watching to find out everything we know about T’Challa’s death in Wakanda Forever.
Chadwick Boseman's death at only 43 years old was a devastating loss to the world, and
the loss rippled through so many different spheres.
In a piece she penned for Andscape in 2020, WNBA star Chiney Ogwumike said that the actor's
role in Black Panther had a lasting cultural legacy for Black people.
The athlete said.
"In many ways, 'Black Panther' helped normalize African heritage and style in popular culture
by truly celebrating it."
Ogwumike talked about using the "Wakanda Forever" salute before games in 2018 something which,
according to an article in Vidette Online, is common in sports, and some sports stars
like Lebron James and Lewis Hamilton used the salute in tribute to Boseman following
his death.
In an interview with Inverse, writer and director Ryan Coogler talked about the original draft
he had written for the sequel to Black Panther and how it would have focused on T'Challa
grappling with the fallout of "the blip" in Avengers: Endgame.
Coogler explained,
"The character was going to be grieving the loss of time, you know, coming back after
being gone for five years ... He was grieving time he couldn't get back.
Grief was a big part of it."
While the script was rewritten to pivot around the real-life death of Boseman, some things
remained the same from the first draft, such as Namor being the antagonist.
Boseman's real-life death also inspired the manner of death of the character T'Challa.
At the beginning of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, fans see Shuri in a race against
time to find a cure for her brother's illness which is never disclosed.
We know from the film that he hid it from Shuri, mirroring Boseman's own private fight
with cancer in real life.
In the opening scene, Shuri is trying to recreate the heart-shaped herb plant which gives the
Black Panther his powers, following Killmonger's destruction of all of the remaining heart-shaped
herbs in the first Black Panther movie.
In Wakanda Forever, it's implied that, had Shuri managed to recreate the heart-shaped
herb properly in the lab, it would have saved T'Challa.
In the mid-credit scene of the film, Nakia introduces Shuri to T'Challa's son, whom the
Black Panther had time to prepare for his coming death.
It's revealed that T'Challa did not want Nakia or his son to come to his funeral, prompting
the two to have their own private ceremony in Haiti to honor the fallen hero.
Thus, we know that T'Challa had time to make some preparations for a death that he saw
coming, even as he seemed to hide some of those preparations from Shuri.
T'Challa's death was kept so close to Boseman's real-life cause of death that fans found themselves
mourning the death of the actor all over again.
A number of fans on social media commented on the way that T'Challa's death was handled
in the film.
In the Marvel Studios subreddit, one Reddit user said,
"I'm still in shock that T'chala [sic] died of an illness that he kept secret."
Another user praised the film for the approach it took toward the death.
The user explained,
"I'm glad they did that.
I think anything else would have felt uncomfortable — either a character who died 'weak' or
a character who died in a 'more badass' way than the actor who portrayed him.
He died in a sad, realistic, and understandable way that lets the audience mourn both Chadwick
and T'Challa."
It's notable that there is a precedent in the comics for Shuri taking over the role
of the Black Panther, not due to T'Challa's death, but due to severe injury.
In "Black Panther" Vol. 5 #2, T'Challa nearly dies after a battle with someone he thinks
is Doctor Doom but is only a robot, only to then fall in a battle with the real Doctor
Doom.
The battle comes after Namor offers T'Challa a chance to join a cabal composed of himself,
Norman Osborne, Loki, Emma Frost, the Hood, and Doctor Doom.
With T'Challa near death, Shuri takes up the mantle of Black Panther.
Obviously, the movie stayed far away from this plot as most of those characters have
yet to be introduced in the MCU, but this alternative route allowed T'Challa's death
to closely mirror Chadwick Boseman's real-life death, creating a chance for the audience
to mourn the late actor.