How Black Panther: Wakanda Forever pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman
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Warning: This story contains spoilers for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
The biggest question surrounding Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel to the 2018 superhero blockbuster, was how it was going to handle the unexpected death of its real-life star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away in 2020 after a private battle with colon cancer.
Boseman played King T'Challa, a.k.a. the Black Panther, in the Oscar-nominated original as well as three other films in the MCU. After Wakanda Forever opens with T'Challa's off-screen death from an unspecified illness, the late star's first appearance arrives in Marvel's iconic title card: The silent sequence, which has historically featured a montage of various Marvel superheroes before ending on the Marvel Studios logo, is replaced, powerfully and poignantly, with one paying tribute solely to Boseman. The unexpected change elicited cheers and applause at the film's star-studded Oct. 26 premiere – and telegraphed the undercurrent of grief and remembrance that runs throughout the film.
Marvel Studios
"It was helpful that we were honoring someone who we came to know through the work," says director Ryan Coogler, who struggled with continuing the franchise without his friend and star. And it's that work that is front and center, not only in the title sequence, but in another Boseman appearance in Wakanda Forever, during an emotional mid-credits scene where Shuri (Letitia Wright), having taken over the Black Panther mantle, comes to terms with her brother's death. Her sorrow is emphasized by a series of flashbacks of T'Challa. (Boseman previously played T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.)
"I always carried him in every scene," Wright said in EW's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever cover story last month. "I always would ask, 'Bro, what do you think?' and just try to keep a spiritual connection. He meant everything to me, and he's the reason why I'm here. He picked me to be his sister, so I couldn't have done this journey without him."
Marvel Studios 2018
It's tricky, balancing an emotional farewell to a late star while forging ahead with a superhero franchise. But Coogler's cinematic tributes hit just the right, understated notes, echoing the on-set energy of Boseman himself. "He was exceptionally gifted at knowing when enough was enough and how to keep everybody happy, how to keep us all balanced," Coogler said at EW's Around the Table, reunited with Wright, Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia), Danai Gurira (Okoye), Tenoch Huerta (Namor), Mabel Cadena (Namora), and Alex Livinalli (Attuma). "For me as a director working with him, he was very much like having a coach on the field. On days where I was working with him, I knew those days would go great because he would bring balance for the set."
Adds Gurira, who was pleased with the treatment of her former co-star in the script: "The beauty of seeing how it was really intertwined in this narrative, [the] grief and loss and healing. And within that, the honoring of Chadwick, which was a very great comfort to see on the page."
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters now.
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