Amidst much of the discussion surrounding the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman over the weekend was how, amidst chemotherapy and surgery, he still made a number of films with little to no sign of him being sick. Since he was diagnosed in 2016, he filmed Marshall, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, 21 Bridges, and Da 5 Bloods, which garnered a significant amount of awards buzz for the actor even before his untimely death. Another one of those films was Ma Raineys Black Bottom, an adaptation of the stage play of the same name, which is a part of a series of plays written by August Wilson known as the Pittsburgh Cycle (Fences, starring Denzel Washington, is another film from said cycle). Boseman had completed filming over this past summer, and Netflix had even planned to have a virtual preview event for the film that was going to originally be released on August 31st.
Ma Raineys Black Bottom is expected to debut by the end of the year on Netflix, which sparked speculation that Boseman may posthumously recieve a rare Oscars feat, a double nomination. With him gaining buzz for Best Supporting Actor in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods even prior to his death, and a possibility of a Best Actor nod with Ma Rainey, the stage is certainly set for such a feat, which has only happened 12 times in the Academy's nearly century-long history. The last actor to accomplish such a feat was Scarlett Johanson for Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit in 2019, and Boseman would be only the second black actor in history to pull off a double nomination (Jaimie Foxx being the first, for his nominations for Ray and Collateral in 2004).
This, of course, would also mean that Chadwick Boseman's acting career would end with a reprisal of his most popular and iconic role, T'Challa, in Marvels upcoming What If...? series on Disney+. While we know that one of the episodes of the series will feature a scenario in which T'Challa was abucted by the Ravagers instead of Peter Quill, thus leading to him becoming an alternate version of Star-Lord, due to Michael B Jordan also being a member of the cast of What If...?, many fans have speculated that Boseman would also be appearing in an episode with Killmonger as well.
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