Black Panther: T'Challa's Legacy

"We serve Wakanda. And let us not forget, we also serve each other. Together we will always rise." — T' Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in Black Panther

Since its U.S. theatrical debut on February 16, 2018, Black Panther has been a pure celebration of Black culture and power, and marked the beginning of a new era for Black superheroes in cinema. This February 14th will be four years since Black Panther’s release and its second year celebrating its anniversary since the passing of its star, Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Challa aka Black Panther.

The movie’s success wasn’t limited to its box office numbers. Black Panther has had an expansive, and long overdue, cultural impact by representing, uplifting, and celebrating the kind of Black stories that are often left out of American entertainment properties.

Years after the movie became a major blockbuster, we’re finally slated to see the release of its sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with its current theatrical release scheduled for November 11, 2022 in the United States. But the anticipation for the sequel to one of Marvel’s top-grossing movies, has been accompanied by a difficult question: How will the mantle of Black Panther, the movie, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) continue on without its beloved star?

In August of 2020 Chadwick Boseman died in his Los Angeles home at the young age of 43. Boseman not only played the role of the Wakandan king and protector, T’Challa, but played numerous other roles of incredible Black individuals — James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and the first performance I had the pleasure of seeing Boseman in as Jackie Robinson. Boseman and all of his performances, including as T’Challa, were the embodiment of a dream that many Black Americans hold close, to be Black and excellent and represented in the media. His death left a hole in the industry, in my heart, and it especially left a hole in the MCU.

At the time of Boseman’s passing, T’Challa’s story was far from over — really, it had just begun. Maybe it was just a knee-jerk reaction in 2020, but for many, including myself, the thought of recasting T’Challa didn’t feel right. Recasting felt like an erasure of the work Boseman put into the role. At the time, the next logical step for who would take T’Challa’s place as the Black Panther seemed to be Shuri, T’Challa’s sister, played by actor Letitia Wright (a succession we see play out in the comics).

But after some time has passed since Boseman’s death, and controversy over Wright’s anti-vaccination stance has grown, the debate about who will be the next Black Panther, and whether Shuri is the right successor, has returned with force. Some of the many different theories online now include: Michael B. Jordan reprising his role as Killmonger to take on the mantle, Winston Duke’s M’Baku becoming Black Panther, and Lupita Nyongo’s Nakia donning the Black Panther garb.

Beyond the speculation on which character might take over as Black Panther, there has also been a resurgence of support for recasting T’Challa. Fans have taken to social media with the hashtag #RecastTchalla and more than 50,000 have signed an online petition in the hopes of urging Marvel to “Save T’Challa.”

The character of T’Challa is more than the king of Wakanda. He is a strong Black man, whose story has resonated with a generation of Black boys and men, who can see themselves in the calm-headed individual, passionate about protecting his people and the dignified regelness he brings to the silver screen. I am not ready to see T’Challa’s story come to an end.

When Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that Marvel would not be looking to recast the character T’Challa after Boseman’s death, I felt like that was the right move. Now I’m not sure it was. Ending T’Challa’s story would also be deciding to end all of the inspiring stories that were to come. A Black Panther comic was the first I ever picked up when I began reading comic books at 12 years old. T’Challa was one of the first times I can remember feeling represented, and the moment he arrives on screen in Captain America: Civil War was revelatory for me. As we grow closer and closer to the release of Black Panther’s sequel, I’ve had time to challenge my initial reaction and that knee-jerk feeling has now slipped away. When I fell in love with the stories of T’Challa, it was because of who he was and what he represented, not because a particular person was playing him.

Boseman brought this character to life, a character that is rarely seen by Black boys and men in America. T’Challa is Black history and his story doesn’t — shouldn’t — have to end here. In Wakandan culture, "death is not the end. It's more of a stepping off point.” In Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa explains it as, “You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into the green veld where... you can run forever." Even in death, T’Challa has much story to offer and the more I think about the future of the MCU without T’Challa, it just all seems bleak. While this is indeed a nuanced conversation, and there may not be one particular right decision to make — I can’t help but feel that not recasting the character would be a wrong one.

“T’Challa is more than the king of Wakanda. He is a strong Black man, whose story has resonated with a generation of Black boys and men.”

T’Challa was a role that Boseman believed in and he stood by the fact that the role was bigger than himself. After his death, Boseman’s brother said he believes that the character should live on, even without his brother at the helm. So the conversation shouldn’t be centered around just passing on the Black Panther torch, but preserving the character that is T’Challa — a role that is bigger than any of us. With Ryan Coogler, writer of the first movie, taking the lead on the sequel, I know this movie at its core will still be a celebration of Black and African culture. But I also know without T’Challa there will be an emptiness that fills the theater, and long after this sequel hits screens across the world, we’ll still be wondering what was the right decision.

No one person can carry a full ideal, and it will hurt to no longer see Boseman sit on the throne as T’Challa, but it may hurt more to never see T’Challa on the big screen ever again.

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