Black Panther producer explains decision not to recast Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa

‘We just couldn’t do it,’ Nate Moore said

Black Panther producer Nate Moore has explained Marvel’s decision not to recast Chadwick Boseman’s character T’Challa after Boseman’s death in 2020.

Appearing on an episode of The Ringer-Verse Podcast,Moore confirmed that the studio would neither be looking for a replacement, nor using a computer-generated version of the actor in forthcoming Black Panthersequels.

The MCU producer said: “We just couldn’t do it.”

Boseman, who first appeared as King T’Challa/Black Panther in the 2016 film Captain America: Civil War, died of colon cancer in 2020, aged 43. He last played the role on-screen in Avengers: Endgame in 2019.

“When Chad passed, it was a real conversation we had with [director Ryan] Coogler about what do we do, and it was a fast conversation,” Moore said. “I think we all feel so much of T’Challa in the MCU on the screen – not in comics – is tied to Chadwick’s performance, is what he brought to that role both on and off-screen.”

As a result, the producer continued, the biggest challenge of the forthcoming Black Panther sequel Wakanda Forever was “telling a story without T’Challa”.

He added that there will be a “level of ... catharsis in people coming back this universe without that guy, because that guy and that universe to me are one in the same”.

The film is slated for release on 8 November, 2022, having been slightly delayed. In October, MCU announced that the release dates for all its 2022 films, includingWakanda Forever, had been postponed.

Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Danai Gurira, and Florence Kasumba, who will all be reprising their roles from the first film. It was also announced that I May Destroy You creator and Emmy winner Michaela Coel will also be joining the cast in an unknown role.