Chadwick Boseman Wins Posthumous Emmy for Marvel’s What If…?

Before Academy Award nominee Chadwick Boseman passed away the Black Panther star was able to get into the recording booth and bring his Marvel character T’Challa to life one last time for the animated series Marvel’s What If…? In the series Boseman would play a version of the hero that found himself living among the stars instead of the plains of Wakanda, answering the question “What if T’Challa was Star-Lord?” Boseman would reprise the part in a few episodes of the show’s first season and now he’s been honored with an Emmy Award for his work.

The Television Academy held the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards tonight, announcing that Boseman had been awarded the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for his work on the series.Others nominated in the category alongside Boseman included Julie Andrews for Bridgerton, Maya Rudolph for Big Mouth, Stanley Tucci for Central Park, and the late Jessica Walter for Archer. Two other Marvel cast members were also nominated in the category including F. Murray Abraham for playing Johnshu in Moon Knight and Jeffrey Wright for playing Uatu The Watched in What If..?

“We didn’t know it would be his final performance obviously,” Marvel’s Kevin Feige previously said. “He came in numerous times, was so gung ho about it, was so excited about it…He read the episode that airs 24 hours from now and then came back and said ‘I really love this version of T’Challa.’ And we had a conversation after that with Ryan about ‘How do we get some of this voice,’ none of the storyline, but just some of that voice into Panther 2. Now of course it’s remarkably sad and bittersweet, but I’m very happy we have it and I’m very happy he did it for us.”

The sudden death of Boseman forced extensive rewrites for the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with production and release also being delayed extensively. Marvel is scheduled to release the movie later this year though, arriving in November. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s first official trailer was released during San Diego Comic-Con, offering first looks at a slew of new characters that will make their MCU debut but also confirming that Boseman’s character will have died in the context of the film as well.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released on November 11, 2022.