Which to me sounds like misguided respect. I have a hard time believing that Chadwick Boseman would actually want T’Challa to die, too.
They did not anticipate Covid-19. It’s not a marketing plan. And those people who were complaining? They were wrong.
Seriously. When Boseman was alive did they ask him how he would feel if they killed off T’Challa? It isn’t as if he died overnight. He had enough time to weigh in on the subject.
Even so, I think that it’s a bad assumption that he would even want this honor. It isn’t at all like retiring a number on a jersey. It’s the friggin Black Panther.
I’d think the simplest thing to do would be to explain he somehow did not make it back after the blip for some reason. I realize this could lead to “Poochie returns to his home planet” comparisons but a CGI Boseman dying or leaving Wakanda forever would not be palatable.
Not perhaps so much "misguided respect" as a "misguided level of respect." Or perhaps "misguided response to grief and loss." Refusing to recast the role of T'Challa makes NO sense. They'll have to concoct some cockeyed post-fabricated reason for T'Challa's absence that will make no sense and will probably turn off more people than it satisfies. It's no insult to Chadwick Boseman to recast the role of T'Challa after his shocking and unexpected death. They ought to recast the role carefully and dedicate the film to Boseman prominently in the opening credits. And make a film altogether worthy of his memory. One can't ask for better than that.
I've seen persuasive arguments in both directions. So far the official word is that we won't see the character in Black Panther 2, not necessarily that we won't see the character in future Marvel installments. If Marvel is truly dipping into the multiverse, as the title of the next Doctor Strange film and the rumors about the next Spider-Man film suggest, recasting would be easier than ever from an in-universe perspective.
I have no problems with a no-recast T'Challa policy. Just get somebody else take the "Black Panther" mantle, call the film "Black Panther: Reloaded" or some similar silly Hollywood title. If Miles Morales can be Spider Man and Sam Wilson can be Captain America, there is no reason why they couldn't cast somebody like Christian Bale (about the same age of Boseman) or even Ryan Gosling as Black Panther. The suit would be a variation of the same we all know and love, just like it happened for Spider Man and Captain America.
It wouldn't surprise me if the comics already had a "white" Black Panther. I can imagine Christian Bale performing well in that role actually.
I think it's great. Firstly obviously they do have a backlog to clear so hence the volume, that's not difficult to understand. But people have been starved of films for over a year now and it's something to look forward to for all the film fans. Normal times and I would say too much but people want to start living again and it's a fantastic treat to get everyone back in the cinemas with four films to look forward to this year. Like a treat for enduring what we had.
Unlike many of the examples the 'Black Panther' mantle is just a title, not a person. So they don't need to recast T'Challa to have a new Black Panther. I think given everything they may have Shuri take up the mantle of the Black Panther. She is a popular character and wasted a bit as just the tech wizard. T'Challa dies of camera or at the start of the film fighting a terrible enemy (you just have the CGI suit fighting), Shuri has to save the day by donning the suit and the council says that she should be the new Black Panther and she reluctantly agrees as the nation needs a leader and out of respect for her brother. No-one does the challenge thing out of respect either.
I think I need to stop feeling obligated to watch all this stuff. The two D+ TV shows thus far are things I'll never want to revisit, and Spiderman Far From Home was probably my least fave MCU film, so maybe I'll take a break until Ant Man and GOTG3 in 2023, as truthfully those are the only upcoming titles I have any interest in seeing. Maybe Thor too if it's fun like Ragnarok.
Of course I'm aware that they don't HAVE to recast T'Challa,, it's just that in this circumstance, manufacturing a whole new Black Panther character abruptly seems like an unnecessary wrench to the franchise. If there ever was a good reason to just recast the same character (which is not an unprecedented move, even in the MCU) it's this one.
This is probably what I'm most excited about. I just hope they stick to the original comics and not the later ones.
I dunno - admit I did not see any of the Marvel TV shows but I saw the Phase 4 preview and it didn't exactly grab me. As much as I liked Endgame, it was a diminishing returns rehash of Infinity Wars. The Captain Marvel and Spiderman movies were okay but fairly rote, and on the DC side, Wonder Woman84 was fairly bland. I think if Marvel doesn't bring something new to the table, Super Hero movies might be reaching their tipping point. I do think part of the problem has been getting 3-4 of these things every year. No matter how much you love something, you can get sick of it after awhile if you get too much. Hopefully all this time to woodshed will bring some renewed energy to the genre.
