Black Panther has dominated headlines this week. It all started when the news broke that Marvel Studios is reportedly looking to cast a new T'Challa, with the prevailing theory being that the Multiverse Saga will somehow age up Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's Toussaint.
Regardless of whether it's T'Challa II or a Multiversal Variant, the news that Black Panther will live to fight another day has pleased most fans. Following in the late Chadwick Boseman's footsteps will not be easy, but the majority seem ready to see another actor honour his and the character's legacy.
After revealing some of the names Marvel Studios is eying for the MCU's new T'Challa yesterday, scooper @MyTimeToShineH today brings word that "[The] new T'Challa will first [appear] in the Avengers movies then Black Panther 3."
So, as expected, there's likely a Multiversal element at play. Whether it's the future Toussaint or a Black Panther from an alternate reality, Avengers: Secret Wars' rumoured reset looks set to establish the hero in time for Black Panther 3.
It's also somewhat fitting that the Russo Brothers be the ones to reintroduce T'Challa in Avengers: Doomaday, as it was in 2016's Captain America: Civil War that Boseman made his unforgettable debut as the hero.
In 2022, filmmaker Ryan Coogler said this about the possibility of recasting the role:
"You consider everything when something like this happens. It’s like, ‘I don’t think I can come back and make another one,’ ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ ‘I don’t think there should be another movie,’ you go through all of the extremes."
“For me to say we considered recasting as an option, that’s a complicated thing even to say/ Because, like, with these movies, just like my job as a director, I don’t think people fully appreciate a job that is not their own. But the true day-to-day of my job is several hundred days of long days of getting other professionals to believe in ideas I find truthful. That’s what my job is. I have to believe in something enough to go convince other professionals to believe in it as well for an extended period of time. And the moment I stop believing what I’m doing, whatever end product that I am putting out is cooked. It’s done. It has to be truthful for me. And if there’s any element of ‘nope,’ for me, in the process, it’s my job to weed that out."
“My truth is Chadwick is gone from the physical sense; he wasn’t walking through that door. And the world that we created over the years, he was the guy. So for someone else to be him—for us in the world that we created—we wouldn’t have believed it. No matter how good the actor was, no matter, it would have been lacking the necessary truth for us to do a good job. And truth is the well we pull from as artists. Our truth was lost, which is a fact of life; it’s the gift and curse of life. Heroes and great men die."
It makes sense that T'Challa wasn't simply replaced in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but from the moment we met young T'Challa II, it was obvious Marvel Studios planned to have Shuri eventually pass the mantle to her nephew.
As always, let us know your thoughts on this rumour in the comments section.