Marvel studios president Kevin Feige talks ‘Black Panther 2,’ legacy of Chadwick Boseman

Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, recently spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about how they are moving forwards on the sequel to ‘Black Panther’ given the death of its star, Chadwick Boseman.

“It’s extremely, extremely challenging,” he said.

“And it's what Ryan is thinking about,” he added, referring to ‘Black Panther’ writer/director Ryan Coogler.

He also suggested that audio Boseman had recorded for the animated DIsney+ series ‘What If…?’ Could possibly be repurposed for ‘Black Panther 2’

“[Boseman] came in and recorded three episodes of the ‘What If…?” animated series for us … it was just a fun thing and now will be his final appearance.”

Video Transcript

- Just don't freeze when you see her.

- What are you talking about? I never freeze.

KEVIN POLOWY: The world lost a superhero last summer. You and I both lost a friend. What can you say about the contributions of Chadwick Boseman to the MCU over the years you got to work with him?

KEVIN FEIGE: Well, what's amazing about Chad is not just contributions to the MCU and bringing T'Challa to life. It's his contributions to the world, as that character, but more importantly, as himself. Going back and watching that Howard University speech is astounding, and I think will go down in history as one of the great speeches of all time as more people discover it and look at it.

CHADWICK BOSEMAN: Sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your fight is.

KEVIN FEIGE: And the work-- I just watched Ma Rainey recently. Spectacular, and the loss is overwhelming and by far the most personal loss-- obviously-- ever for us within the MCU. But Ryan Coogler is hard at work, and continuing that legacy is job number one for us. In many ways. Not just in Black Panther ways, but in any ways we can to help but continue the legacy of Chadwick. It was a terrible thing. Terrible loss.

KEVIN POLOWY: We know you've committed to not recasting T'Challa, which we definitely appreciate. I mean, how do you move forward without him? How challenging is that?

KEVIN FEIGE: It's extremely, extremely challenging. But it's the job ahead of us. And it's what Ryan is thinking about. And every experience with Chadwick, everyone now has to look back on with a different point of view now, knowing that he was sick. Every interaction I had with him was amazing. They become all the more amazing when you realize what he was personally going through. But he came in and recorded three episodes of the What If...? animated series for us playing T'Challa. It was just a fun thing. And now will be his final appearance. And of course, he's great. And it's moving. Even more so now. The world of Wakanda that that now is revered around the world, thanks in large part to him, deserves to live on. And that's what Coogler is focusing on.