Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige explained in a new interview why he and Black Panther director Ryan Coogler chose not to recast Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa in the upcoming sequel Wakanda Forever after the actor’s death.
In an interview, Feige insisted Boseman needed to be honored, not replaced, in Ryan Coogler’s follow-up film. “It just felt like it was much too soon to recast,” Feige said. “Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window.”
“The conversations were entirely about, yes, ‘What do we do next? And how could the legacy of Chadwick — and what he had done to help Wakanda and the Black Panther become these incredible, aspirational, iconic ideas — continue?’ That’s what it was all about,” Feige said.
The follow-up brings back much of the cast with some newcomers. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Tenoch Huerta, Martin Freeman, and Angela Bassett are set to star in the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever arrives in theaters November 11.