“We just couldn’t do it”: Marvel movie producer on not recasting Black Panther after Chadwick Boseman’s death

Marvel Studios

Nate Moore, who’s produced Marvel Studios movies including Black Panther and Eternalsjust told podcaster Van Lathan about moving on in the MCU without Chadwick Boseman

The celebrated actor, who played T’Challa/Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War and his own blockbuster stand-alone film, died in 2020 after a private battle with cancer. 

“I’m not hedging my bets. I’m being quite honest. You will not see T’Challa in [future Marvel films]” Moore told Van Lathan, referring to their choice not to re-cast the part. “We just couldn’t do it.” 

Moore continued, “When Chad passed, it was a real conversation we had with [director RyanCoogler about what do we do, and it was a fast conversation. It wasn’t weeks, it was minutes of we had to figure out how to move that franchise on without that character.”

Moore says, “Because I think we all feel so much of T’Challa on the screen — not in the comics — is tied to Chadwick’s performance, is what he brought to that role both on and off-screen…”

“So as hard as it has been narratively to figure out what to do, because that’s a big hole, at no point did we consider recasting,” Moore declared. “So the challenge for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is telling a story without T’Challa.”

Moore said of the 2022 sequel, “there will be a level of…catharsis in people coming back this universe without that guy, because that guy and that universe to me are one in the same.”  He added, “as filmmakers…you have to figure out… what you want that movie to say about that guy who’s not going to be in it.”

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