Last month, a rumor did the rounds that Marvel Studios was planning to recast the role of T'Challa, bringing a new actor in to play the MCU's original Black Panther five years after the death of Chadwick Boseman.
The original report stated that Marvel is "looking to recast its Black Panther hero T'Challa ahead of the two Avengers movies and Ryan Coogler's Black Panther 3," but we would later hear that studio was actually in the process of casting an actor for the role of Black Panther's son (also named T'Challa), who was introduced at the end of Wakanda Forever.
Marvel's VP of Production & Development Nate Moore was asked about the possibility of a new T'Challa being introduced during an interview with ComicBook.com, and while he did initially appear to debunk the reports, it doesn't sound like the idea has been completely dismissed.
“The truth is, there’s no truth to those rumors. Never say never to anything, we haven’t really had a lot of creative conversations with Ryan Coogler yet, because he’s finishing his film Sinners, which comes out this year. We’ll get into it later this year, but everything you read online is not true, if for no other reason than we just haven’t started [working on it].”
We wouldn't call that an outright denial!
"We are still figuring out again exactly what [the next] Avengers is going to be, so we haven't had any real story conversations," Moore said in a separate interview with EW. "I know there's been a lot of chatter online about casting and villains. None of that's true. We just haven't gotten there yet, to be honest, but I am very excited to start those conversations hopefully this year."
"We don't know what the story is, so I couldn't tell you whether or not we're open to recasting," he added. "It certainly wasn't our instinct for Wakanda Forever. I'll never say never to anything, but it's too early to talk about any of that stuff. We have to figure out what the story's going to be."
For now, we'll just have to wait and see how things progress and whether we do get some kind of hint that a new take on T'Challa will be taking on the Black Panther mantle in one of the upcoming Avengers movies.
During a 2022 interview with the New York Times, director Ryan Coogler admitted that he'd be glad to stay on this franchise for "as long as folks will have me."
"I feel blessed that I have the opportunity to work on these movies, bro. When I got asked to do the first one, it was like a moving train. I thank God every day that I was able to jump on it and meet these people, these actors, and to meet Chadwick during some of the last years of his life. I’ll do it as long as folks will have me. But I think it’s bigger than just me or Joe. Between the first and second movie, we made $2 billion at the box office, which is what matters the most to corporations. So I hope that it continues, man. I hope people are still making movies about Wakanda long after we’re gone."
In Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira), and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba), fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War Dog Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) and forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda. Introducing Tenoch Huerta as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation, the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena, and Alex Livanalli.