In the wake of Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death in August 2020, a top Marvel official spoke candidly about how Disney handled the trauma of losing its star actor.
T’Challa was more than just another Marvel superhero to a lot of people, and his passing has left many fans grieving.
In the end, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was given the challenging task of carrying on the successful franchise while simultaneously paying tribute to Chadwick Boseman’s passing.
Fortunately, the movie was a success, with critics complimenting the “excellent” manner it handled themes of loss and grief and the fact that the franchise continues to be one of the MCU’s greatest achievements. The road to the sequel, however, was anything from simple.
Nate Moore, a producer at Marvel, has recently explained how Disney handled the hurt.
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Disney’s Response to the Death of Chadwick Boseman
Nate Moore, the Marvel Studios’ vice president of production and development, spoke candidly about the internal events that occurred as Disney digested Chadwick Boseman’s passing in a recent interview with Deadline.
When asked how long it took to adjust, Moore said it was a “multi-layered” process that started with shock and denial over the bad news.
Understanding the loss of Chadwick Boseman, who passed away at the age of 43, was challenging:
There are like… I apologize for my poor French, but “Holy shit, what happened?” And initially… I recall getting the phone while really on the treadmill and asking, “Wait, what happened?” Then when we speak on the phone, our mind is processing it as an idea rather than as an emotional encounter.
Moore, though, started to make sense of it and questioned whether the actor’s battle with illness was “the reason X, Y, and Z was happening.”
It is commonly known that Chadwick Boseman made an effort to keep his cancer diagnosis a secret, and not many people were aware of the actor’s condition.
Moore questioned whether or not “we [should] even create this movie:” after the actor’s untimely demise.
“You then begin to consider all of the, “Oh, maybe that’s why X, Y, and Z were happening. Then you mentally process it and ask, “What do we do now?” Do we even need to film this movie?
Moore sought to avoid “simply going through the motions” and found it particularly difficult to deal with “the loss of not only your star but a friend”:
“Like, how do you react to the death of not just your star, but also a buddy with whom you made, for me, two movies together, without feeling like you’re just going through the motions?”
“Recasting was never a thought that occurred to me… I couldn’t imagine telling Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, or Lupita Nyong’o, “Hey, here’s the new T’Challa,” because we have to create something we really connect with and believe in.
Even so, there were internal discussions concerning the franchise’s future. Moore stressed that Disney never insisted on making a Black Panther 2 sequel. There was no demand that you “find it out because you have to do the movie.”
Disney argued that the sequel shouldn’t be created “on their account” instead. Nate Moore and Marvel Studios CEO Kevin Feige were in charge of selecting the appropriate course of action:
Disney never said, “You have to make the movie, so figure it out,” and I’ve said that before, and it’s true. Well, if you don’t have to, don’t make the movie, they said. Please don’t make the movie on our behalf if you guys don’t want to.
Even in light of his tragic absence, the two agreed after speaking with Boseman’s widow, Simone Boseman, that “Chad would’ve wanted us to do the movie.”
The topic of T’Challa’s absence from the upcoming Black Panther film was discussed, and Moore outlined how they decided to handle it in terms of the story:
“How do you then develop your story? How would the story then address the fact that we didn’t want T’Challa to be in the film, which we didn’t, in a way that seemed genuine?
T’Challa’s death in an off-screen action scene was an early theory, but it was dismissed as “crazy,” and Marvel decided not to “fight the reality of what we all experienced as a community.”
The MCU chose to be genuine in its approach. It “seemed like the most realistic thing we could do as storytellers,” according to Moore, to have T’Challa pass away from disease and utilize the anguish to “power [the film] in a way that hopefully respects the reality:”
Yes, since we knew we had a response to the death and that was the only method that seemed genuine. And undoubtedly, the world did—or at the very least, his admirers did. Therefore, it seemed like the most sincere thing we as storytellers could do was use that as fuel a little bit, hopefully in a way that respects the truth of the situation.
Marvel “approved everything with Simone” at each stage and wanted to make sure it complied with the intentions of Boseman’s family.
The MCU producer added that he wanted it to be “ultimately therapeutic” and that he wanted to let the characters “grieve” what the audience had to go through.
“We discussed everything with Simone along the way because we never wanted to do anything that would cause the family to say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t do that.” But also give the characters room to be sad and go through what the real people went through, ideally in a cathartic way.”
Why the Black Panther 2 Almost Didn’t Happen
The director of the two Black Panther movies, Ryan Coogler, too faced difficulties and nearly gave up on making movies. Nate Moore was not the only one who battled.
The director was open and honest about his hardships after Chadwick Boseman’s death and how, in the end, he felt a great obligation to carry on.
After thinking back on his chats with the deceased actor near the end of his life, he came to this realization.
Despite Boseman’s desire for the franchise to continue without him, Coogler believed it made more sense to carry on with it without his friend and leading man.
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