Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Producer Kevin Feige Says “Very Special” Sequel Honors Chadwick Boseman

Marvel Studios President and producer Kevin Feige updates Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, saying the “very special” sequel from director Ryan Coogler honors Chadwick Boseman. After the 43-year-old King T’Challa actor died in August 2020, Feige confirmed in December that Marvel would not recast the character because Boseman’s portrayal “is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel’s past.” Instead, to “honor the legacy that Chad helped us build,” Feige revealed Wakanda Forever would “continue to explore the world of Wakanda and all the rich and varied characters introduced in the first film.”

Boseman’s death from a private four-year battle with colon cancer “hit all of us extremely hard and at the same time as it hit the world because we didn’t know either, and there were all sorts of questions,” Feige said in a new interview with Rotten Tomatoes. “Our first thought, for many weeks afterward, had nothing to do with the movie. It had to do with him and his family and his wife and his legacy, and really, we were looking to Ryan Coogler to guidance as one, frankly, always should about almost everything in life.”

Coogler, who penned multiple drafts of Black Panther II with returning co-writer Joe Robert Cole, engaged in conversations with Marvel Studios that “essentially came down to continuing the legacy of Wakanda and continuing with that storyline in a very meaningful, respectful, and yet still hopeful and fun and exciting way, which was difficult after losing Chad.”

“I will say that Ryan and our producer Nate Moore, and the entire cast and our co-writer Joe Robert Cole, have done some remarkable things in the story, in the draft,” Feige said. “The team is assembling once again, and cameras roll in the not-too-distant future on that. It will be extremely emotional across the board, but I think they have something very special in mind.”

Plot details for the Black Panther sequel remain under wraps. It’s rumored Netflix’s Narcos: Mexico actor Tenoch Huerta will play Namor the Sub-Mariner, a sometimes ally and sometimes enemy of Wakanda in the Marvel comic books, in his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Starring Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, and Angela Bassett, Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on July 8, 2022.