The sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman is still difficult for many of us to comprehend, and has understandably sent shockwaves through the Hollywood community. Boseman's friends and colleagues at Marvel Studios were hit especially hard by the news, because the actor had chosen to keep his 4-year battle with colon cancer private.
THR has now shared a new report on where the studio stands with continuing (or not) the Black Panther franchise in the wake of its star's death, and one revelation in particular makes the tragic news even harder to handle.
Apparently, Boseman "was convinced until about a week before his death that he was going to beat cancer and would be able to gain the weight back for a Black Panther sequel that was scheduled to go into production in March." This would explain why he chose not to reveal his diagnosis to anyone outside of his immediate family, and Kevin Feige only learned about Chadwick's health problems via email on the night he died.
According to the trade's sources, Disney is "processing its grief and its focus at this stage is to pay tribute to Boseman and not on the making of a Black Panther sequel." There are several options open to Marvel once they are ready to address the future of the franchise, but they will have to tread very carefully.
Recasting T'Challa would not be a good idea, and most would agree that the best way to honor Boseman and the character would be to have his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) take up the mantle of the Black Panther.
Whatever decisions are made in the wake of Boseman's death are going to be met with close scrutiny and inevitable backlash, but for now it's a relief to hear that Disney is content to let him - and Black Panther - rest for a while and grieve along with the rest of us.
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