The brother of late Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman has said he believes the star would have wanted his role recast for future Marvel movies.
Speaking to TMZ, Derrick Boseman explained that Chadwick "thought T'Challa was bigger than just himself," and "knew the power of the character, and the positive influence it carries."
Although Derrick noted that his brother – who died of colon cancer last year – never explicitly expressed his wishes before his death, he thinks Chadwick “would agree [that] T'Challa should live on in the MCU.”
Derrick’s comments come as a change.org petition to see the iconic role recast recently surpassed 44,000 signatures. It notes that recasting T'Challa “is not a call to replace Chadwick Boseman,” but that removing the character “would be at the expense of the audiences (especially Black boys and men) who saw themselves in him.”
Help us reach our new goal of 45K signatures. Chadwick worked far too hard to bring King T'Challa to LIFE for @MarvelStudios to kill him off prematurely. Let's make both Chadwick & T'Challa the beginning of a legend and not the end of one. #RecastTChallahttps://t.co/tX4l8HeMlTNovember 29, 2021
At the time of Boseman’s death in August 2020, Marvel confirmed that it wouldn’t recast the role of T’Challa as a tribute to the late actor’s powerful portrayal.
"Honoring Chadwick Boseman's legacy and portrayal of T'Challa, Marvel Studios will not recast the character, but will explore the world of Wakanda and the rich characters introduced in the first film," a company tweet read last year.
Many fans took this to mean that Shuri would likely step into T'Challa’s shoes in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which is scheduled for release on November 11, 2022 as part of Marvel’s Phase 4 movie roster. But, although shooting began on the project earlier this year, Wright sustained an injury which forced her to return home to London.
We then reported on rumors suggesting that Winston Duke’s M’Baku would instead be inheriting the Black Panther moniker in subsequent movies. Marvel hasn’t offered further comment on the matter beyond its initial statement, so we’re still in the dark as to what the studio has planned for the franchise.
In any case, given that the scheduled release date for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is less than 12 months away, it’s unlikely Derrick Boseman’s recent comments will have any material impact on T'Challa’s role within it.
Still, his thoughts will be sure to reignite the debate around the future of the Black Panther franchise as a whole. As the aforementioned petition reads: “The number one way to kill a legend is to stop telling their story.”
