Disney unsure whether to move ahead with Black Panther 2 following Chadwick's death
 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne..._medium=social

Apparently Disney is unsure how to proceed with the already announced Black Panther 2. They never started filming and probably don't even have a complete script since the movie wasn't planned to come out till 2022 anyway.

My guess is...they'll cancel it, or heavily re-write it so Shuri is the main character instead. I don't think they'll recast, it would be disrespectful since we're in the same continuity.

A real shame this happened in the middle of the #BlackLivesMatter movement too. We had the first big black superhero movie and a black icon in the midst of the current social turmoil and with his unfortunate passing, it is not a good look. I don't know what Disney can do but recasting him would likely cause an uproar so it's best to leave well enough alone.

Yeah, this would be an inevitable discussion, wouldn't it? We already touched upon this in the death announcement thread. My guess is that the script will be scrapped entirely and replaced with one that doesn't include T'Challa if they ever decide to make the movie. If they do in fact make the movie, it would be delayed by few years, the original 2022 date seems somewhat unlikely now.

The title of Black Panther being passed on to another character is built into the lore, so that would be the least of the concerns in regards to writing a sequel without the original main character. How to write him out however is the tricky part. Maybe some mention of an assassination or unfortunate mission gone wrong can be in a preceeding movie?

Well, with the coronavirus putting off many film productions and giving an additional excuse prior anyhow... imo, it's prob just best to let it sit and cool for a while. Put it on the back burner and get back to it with a recast once it's past being "too soon." Would give them a lot more time to consider how to go about it anyhow.

It's definitely a sticky situation.

Easy enough to do another Batman movie and not reference the Joker in any way.

Much harder to do a Black Panther movie without T'Challa.

How much longer can the Marvel universe really go on for anyway? I mean I know they want to include the X-men, but with both Iron Man, Captain America and Black Widow gone in-universe and now Black Panther, it makes you wonder if it's really worth continuing for another decade.

Obviously they'll be an inevitable reboot eventually once the actors get too old, but it makes you wonder.

There's still a few inevitable sequels coming like Thor 4, Guardians 3, Ms Marvel 2, etc....but it makes you wonder how far we'll go after those.

My gut tells me it would be best to recast. It's probably what Chadwick would have wanted and would probably be sold that way as well as that it gives another black actor the opportunity to spear head such a historic franchise.

Marvel made a bunch of bunch of B list and C list characters into billion dollar stars. It made Guardians of the Galaxy a franchise so obscure even comic book nerds largely didn't know about them into huge stars. They made a successful franchise out of Ant-Man...yes Ant-Man and not even the version of the character people cared about.

You brush off Doctor Strange 2, Captain Marvel 2, Spider-Man 3 and Thor 4 as if it's nothing when all three are huge franchises. Heck if all the actors are willing we'd see them getting movies for a while. If Eternals and Shang Chi do the business they'll have at least three movies a piece.

X-Men and Fantastic Four will be huge when Marvel makes 'em and they'll also have three movies a piece at least with a potential for spin offs. Not to mention there's the distinct possibility we'll see another iteration of The Avengers.

Assuming Covid allows this to happen they'll be fine for a long time.

If the leaks about America Chavez being in Doctor Strange 2 are true, then that would impy they were starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel when it came to characters. I give it another ten years or so before they exhaust Wolverine, X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Deadpool and whatever other decent characters they got out the merger before they're forced to either declare Netflix Daredevil and the other TV shows non-canon in favor of making movie versions, or indeed use barrel bottom characters like Squirrel Girl and Speedball. And when that fails after like five years, then you get a reboot, probably one that includes Spider-Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four from the start.

Because let's face it, you wanna know the reason characters like Spider-Man wasn't traditionally associated with the Avengers? Because his book sold well enough on it's own. There is a reason why the rights to Ghost Rider, Blade, Captain America, The Punisher, Howard the Duck and Daredevil were let go of so easily but the X-Men required a merger and Spider-Man a renegotiation of the license that is still in effect. Even the Hulk can technically only show up due to an agreement with Universal.

^^^

What is wrong with America Chevez? She's a respectable character.

Squirrel Girl is one of Marvel's best selling characters. I don't know if conceptually she fits having her own movie but it's inevitable she'll be in the MCU eventually.

Also as I pointed out Marvel Studios has a knack for making characters few people care about into franchise headliners so I wouldn't wrote off any character as "bottom of the barrel.

Yeah it is sticky. I believe they got a bit of flack with Carrie Fisher over the recent Star Wars movie. How much film do they have with Chadwick for the sequel? Perhaps a recast would need to happen if they go though with it.

That is sort of what I suspect the eventual decision will be, due to what I'm willing to bet are Boseman's family's wishes.

Let it lie dormant. Finish this round of continuity and then use the multi-verse concept to bring people back or to go into an offshoot continuity where you can recast and bring the characters people want to see back into the fold - the Big 3 Avengers, Panther, X-Men.

Move the MCU into space and try the 3rd tier magic again with characters like Quasar, Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock.

I really hope they have Shuri take on the mantle as the black panther. It would be a great opportunity for further diversifying the mcu and have another Female lead would be great as well. Plus I like Shuri!

I'm actually surprised Disney had a conscious. Like if this was before Disney bought Marvel I'd understand the hesitation but I honestly expected Disney to only care cause it ruined their plans to make more millions off him.

Shuri should be the Black Panther. She's actually quite likable and had her own natural charm that Brie Larson would never be able to bring to the table.

Count me in with the people who would love to see Shuri take up the mantle like in the comics. I also think Letitia Wright has some great sass and charisma she can bring it.

Way too soon for that. And what, T'Challa just suddenly vanishes and nobody ever hears from him ever again? That'd be stupid. They have to recast.

I’m for recast as well. T’challa’s story is just beginning.

The future generations need this character, it doesn’t belong to only one man forever.

This is the second time Disney found themselves in this situation, the first of course when Carrie Fisher died and they had to use old footage of her as Leia for Episode 9. But at least there it was easy since it was the last Star Wars movie and she wasn't the lead character of the film anyway, unlike Black Panther is literally the star of his own film.

Man, Disney is probably running health checks on all their lead actors right now. I imagine this is some kind of reality check especially for some of the aging actors.

There is another option: CGI his face onto a similar actor. Find a soundalike to dub the voice. Try to keep him in the suit and mask as much as possible.

It could work. Should it, though, is the ethical question, of course.

There's no way Disney didn't know Chadwick had cancer for indemnity and insurance purposes. I'm impressed with no leaks and few people knowing up until his death.

I'm not interested in Shuri, and I've had it up to here with female-led movies

But that like very odd when they did it for Peter Cushing for Rouge 1.

It could. Though it's been a few years since even Rogue One. And as I said... if they were so inclined, they could reduce the amount he has his mask off.

But yeah. Probably a recast is the only thing that makes sense. I suspect they'll just push back Black Panther 2, do X-Men and whatever stuff first, maybe casually introduce the new T'Challa in a random MCU movie in the mean time.

So they're making the dumbest possible choice and not recasting.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chadwic...disney-marvel/

T'Challa will just Paul Walker off into the shadows, inexplicably or worse, be killed off between movies. What an awful idea.

I'm sorry, but that is probably the worst decision possible.

T'Challa was a hero to so many kids who've never had a black superhero before on the big screen! (No, third-tier nobodies like Falcon and War Machine don't count, and no, R-rated Blade doesn't count.) I get wanting to respect Boseman's legacy, but I can't believe he would be okay with this.

Recast, and let those kids keep their hero.

A bad situation all around, but I think they should've recast BP with some in-universe explanation.

They're absolutely going to do Shuri now. :roll:

They can come up with an excuse as to why T'challa isn't there, have a new BP for a few movies and eventually recast and bring T'challa back.
People weren't going to let them recast T'challa without making a huge drama in the age of social media, it's a PR nightmare.

Recasting now might've been the best choice but sadly they'd just be compared the whole time so I can see their choice. It's hard not to compare, Spartacus Season 3/4 just weren't the same without the original actor, and they had Season 2 to set up a new character in between S1 and S3 to "cohost" in a way.

Considering how out-of-favour Shuri's actress is at the moment on social media, maybe they'll get cold feet on that.

Honestly id rather see Okoye become the next Panther over Shuri. Change things up from the comics

It's tragic the death happened. We finally get a black superhero that was incredibly popular worldwide and well received, and then he passes away. We've never had a mainstream superhero movie with a black lead (unless you count Blade but that was two decades ago and most people aren't even aware it was based on a comic), and this happens.

And to make matters worse he dies right when the Black Lives Matter movement was going on too. Man, black people just can't catch a break.

Can't speak for Chadwick, but if T'Challa were real, he'd be disgusted with BLM

Can't speak for Chris Evans, but if Captain America were real, he'd be Qanon.

https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/1f7/...quare.w700.jpg

Not that I think Shuri is the way to go, but those people need to not be humored. Not one bit.

Ah, what a great meme image:
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...70/795/c1e.jpg
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...32/505/a08.jpg
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...30/301/2b2.png
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...9/570/d51.jpeg
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...29/276/408.png
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...29/170/131.jpg
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...28/563/11f.png
https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...64/384/64d.png

Okay, the Miyamoto and Anakin ones actually popped me.

This whole thing with "so-and-so IS the character!" and that if the actor dies then the character must get thrown into the coffin with them... it's horrible and limiting and stupid.

Like if Marvel launches their first big X-Men movie tomorrow and people generally like the actor they choose's portrayal of Cyclops, but he chokes on a chicken leg at a family dinner a year later and dies... I guess Cyclops just dies in the movies suddenly and we're supposed to go, "it's the best thing to do"? What kind of sick, backwards logic is this? And again, forget about "honoring the actor"... who is so sure that this is what the actor would want? And how?

I just can't imagine there are a lot of actors out there that honestly say, "When I die I don't want anyone to play this character again! I want it to die with me!" Right? I mean, I'm sure there are actors who might say, "I don't want to see anyone else playing this role that I enjoyed... while I am alive"... but dead? Sean Connery was an ornery guy but I'm pretty sure even he wouldn't be like, "NO! When I go, throw Bond into the fire!"

Exactly my sentiment. Just selfish.

It's all the modern sentiment of exploiting "over sensitivity". Nowadays it's more en vogue to shill to the users of that tactic than it is to produce good material in a good spirit.

Even the first Black Panther movie was politicized in disingenuous ways. As if Blade or any other variety of movies never occurred.

I'm telling you man, there's a generation of fools out there with tunnel vision and living in an echo chamber who think they are the first people to walk their Earth or every do anything. It's a generation of narcissists who all got trophies as kids and it's that spirit that has branched out into nearly all of the behavioral phenomena we are seeing nowadays.

Anyone who can't put weave the spider web together on all of this as one cohesive cultural movement is either too dense to see patterns or simply refuses to look.

As much as I enjoyed and will sincerely miss Chadwick Boseman, they're going to have to recast him as his movie got a lot of seats filled. He would've wanted someone to take up the role if he couldn't do it anymore. It wouldn't be the first time an actor in the MCU has been replaced (i.e. Terrance Howard with Don Cheadle even if that's a different situation and that he wasn't War Machine in his first film appearance yet).

Either hire someone else to play the role or forget about a sequel.