When we met T’Challa by Chadwick Boseman in 2016 in 2016 “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016, we could not know how memorable one of its most memorable lines would be: “In my culture, death is not the end.” Boseman himself ended up dying after a battle against cancer in 2020, depriving us of a talented star and a wonderful soul that had so much more to give to the world. But, just when he left a heritage to follow in real life, his superhero counterpart continues to make his presence feel in the Marvel cinematographic universe.
From his first trailer, “Marvel Zombies” immediately felt as one of the most fascinating efforts of the franchise because of its bloody premise alone. However, his next representation of Boseman Black Panther could find himself as one of the most emotional moments of the whole show. As a spin-off with the now concluded animation “What if …?” Series, The New Story takes place in an alternative chronology where the majority of Marvel’s heroes (and bad guys) have been transformed into the living dead. The remaining survivors must fend for themselves, one of whom will understand T’Challa himself. But, as with the successful suite “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, the role of the late Boseman was not overwhelmed. In an interview with Screen Rant, the showrunner of “Marvel Zombies” Bryan Andrews described a scene involving T’Challa where he does not really speak. Instead, Peter Parker (Hudson Thames of “Your Spider-Man neighborhood friend”) tells the action and allows T’Challa to remain silent as a reflection of the actor’s death. As Andrews explained:
“This is why we have chosen to tell Peter for this moment. We did not have Chadwick. If we had Chadwick, it would have been completely different choices […] But being able to see her character again in this way, the way she takes place, it was another way of being with him in a strange way, even if there were no words. You know what I mean? It’s always Black Panther from Chadwick, and it’s Rad. “”
Marvel originally planned a Star-Lord T’Challa spin-off show before Marvel Zombies
Say what you want on the overall direction of the MCU in the years that followed “Avengers: Endgame”, but one thing is certain – nobody took the death of Chadwick Boseman and the future representations of T’Challa lightly. The studio resisted the idea of ​​redesigning the character after Boseman gave life to the hero so perfectly, which is a trend that “Marvel Zombies” continues. But, if Marvel’s initial ideas for this animated corner of the universe had taken place, there would have been an even more exciting exploration in the favorite superhero of Boseman fans. An intriguing detail that Bryan Andrews let slide with these “different choices” which he referred to in the above quote. It turns out that “What if …?” The scenario involving T’Challa as Star-Lord would have led to even more adventures to focus only on him and his ravages. According to Andrews:
“If we had Chadwick, he would have had his own Star-Lord derivative show T’Challa long before we did the zombie thing.”
Unfortunately, this has never materialized, but the writing team found another way of paying tribute to the actor by “Marvel Zombies”. In fact, the director of “Black Panther”, Ryan Coogler, even had a contribution on how the sequence took place. As described by the executive / producer Brad Winderbaum, Coogler had a lot of ideas on how to improve things again:
“And we have in fact shown a first animatic to Ryan Coogler to obtain his notes, and he had great ideas in this sequence which were really additive.”
Fans will have at least a chance to appreciate T’Challa de Boseman when “Marvel Zombies” arrive at Disney + on September 24, 2025.
