The shocking and sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman shook up the MCU fanbase as the actor was coming off of a big run in the universe with his debut in Captain America: Civil War, fighting alongside other superheroes in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and of course, establishing himself in the solo franchise of Black Panther. When it came time to follow up Black Panther with a sequel, the creatives had an incredibly tough assignment. One thing’s for certain: Kevin Feige wasn’t ready to recast T’Challa, as he said, “It just felt like it was much too soon to recast. Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window. And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And Ryan poured that into the story.”
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Shuri would take up the mantle as the new Black Panther, but CBR reports that there might now be talk of Marvel Studios recasting T’Challa using the “multiverse” plot device. The Direct recently spoke to industry insider Jeff Sneider, and he tells through the grapevine that Marvel is currently looking at new actors for the role. He explains, “With Marvel reshuffling the deck in advance of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, and Robert Downey Jr. coming back, not as Iron Man, but as Doctor Doom, I’m told that the door is firmly open for T’Challa to be recast via the magic of the multiverse.”
He continued to say, “I heard that an actor was actually offered the role this past fall, a couple of months after Downey’s big reveal at Comic-Con, but they turned it down, not wanting to jeopardize their career momentum by stepping into Boseman’s gigantic shoes, which may be too big to fill, even for Hollywood’s most talented Black actors.” Sneider believes the new multiverse T’Challa is being planned to lead in the third Black Panther, so this may become a subplot in one of the upcoming Avengers or possibly another MCU movie.
The only thing known about the upcoming sequel is Denzel Washington accidentally letting it spill that Ryan Coogler is writing a role for him. Washington felt so bad about casually dropping that tidbit that he reached out to Coogler to apologize, “I called him the other day. I forgot what it was about — no, I called him to apologize. That’s right. I called him. I said, ‘I’m sorry, man.’ He’s like, ‘No, man, it’s all good.’ I FaceTimed, and right there next to him was his lady. They were editing. They were hanging out.”