How Disney should handle 'Black Panther 2' after Chadwick Boseman's death

[rooster59]

How Disney should handle 'Black Panther 2' after Chadwick Boseman's death

By Helen Coster

 

FILE PHOTO: A group of women pose for a photo in front of a poster advertising the film "Black Panther" on its opening night of screenings in Manhattan, New York, U.S., February 15, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - Soon after learning that “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman had died at age 43, fans urged Marvel Studios not to recast the role, setting up a dilemma for the studio planning a sequel to Hollywood's first major superhero film with a predominantly Black cast.

 

Writers, academics and activists - speaking to Reuters about the film’s cultural impact and Boseman’s performance - believe Marvel and its parent company, Walt Disney Co, should honor Boseman’s legacy with a storyline that anoints a new Black Panther from the film’s existing cast or elsewhere in the Marvel Universe.

 

“They should really consider following the storyline of the comic book and advancing Letitia Wright (who plays Shuri, the tech genius sister of Boseman's character) into that central role,” said Jamil Smith, a senior writer at Rolling Stone.

 

“We’ve seen her in action. We’ve seen her in the middle of these fights. Why would we not think she’d have the courage and strength to become the next Black Panther?”

 

That strategy could help ease in fans who would have a hard time seeing a different male actor continue the role.

 

“Maybe the answer, for those of us who aren’t yet ready to see someone else in that suit, is to pass the reins a little earlier than they had expected and allow Shuri to take on the mantle maybe for a 'Black Panther 2,'" said April Reign, #OscarsSoWhite creator and vice president of content strategy for Ensemble, a content studio.

 

Other approaches could celebrate Boseman’s legacy. “Does (his character) come back as little Black Panther?” said Nicol Turner Lee, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Does Disney honor the imagination of the young boys and girls who looked up to him?”

 

Disney and Marvel declined to comment. The studio has focused on paying tribute to Boseman, broadcasting the film commercial-free last Sunday on Disney-owned ABC, followed by an ABC News special about the actor. According to a report in the Hollywood Reporter, executives were caught by surprise and few people were aware of Boseman's battle with cancer.

 

WAKANDA FOREVER “Black Panther,” based on the pioneering Marvel Comics character that first appeared in 1966, generated $1.35 billion in box-office sales, three Academy Awards and a best picture Oscar nomination, and acclaim for its titular star, who died on Aug. 28. Marvel was planning to begin production of “Black Panther 2” in March, according to the Hollywood Reporter, for a scheduled May 6, 2022, release.

 

Although other studios have experienced the sudden deaths of franchise stars - and have recast, for other reasons, titular roles like Batman and Spider-Man - Marvel’s decision holds more weight because "Black Panther" was a much-celebrated Black superhero movie, starring an actor beloved by fans for the dignity he brought to the role.

 

The 2018 film broke new ground with its predominantly Black cast, helmed by a Black director. Boseman played the character of King T’Challa, who presides over the futuristic African nation of Wakanda. Produced with a $200 million budget, it was praised for its diversity, after years of criticism about the lack of actors and filmmakers of color in Hollywood.

 

“It shattered at that time for Disney just the myth that you cannot package and distribute feature films with Black people as the starring roles,” said Lee. “For me, ‘Black Panther’ represents the fact that inclusivity sells.”

 

“Black Panther” also hit theaters at a time of rising U.S. racial tension. President Donald Trump had recently questioned why the United States would want to have immigrants from Haiti and African nations, referring to some as “shithole countries.” The previous August, he had said "both sides" were to blame for violence between white nationalists and counterprotesters at a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

 

Then came Wakanda.

 

“'Black Panther' the film was a huge cultural landmark,” said Alan Jenkins, a professor of practice at Harvard Law School. “One part of what made the film so important was the world of Wakanda and the idea of an African nation unchained by colonialism, slave trade, exploitation. It had dignity, brilliance and technology.”

 

Today “Black Panther” is even more relevant, as Black Americans disproportionately suffer from COVID-19 and die at the hands of police, cultural experts say. The aspirational Wakanda provides an antidote to that suffering.

 

“The film certainly didn’t cause the activism of today - that was from the tragic killing of George Floyd and others,” said Jenkins. “But it contributed to an environment where we can see new realities and imagine a world that is more just and equitable than the one in which we live.”

 

(Reporting by Helen Coster; Editing by Kenneth Li and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-05

 

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[Orton Rd]

Not another load of tosh, the first one was just a comedy. huge cultural landmark? it's a fantasy and nothing to do with the reality or history of Africa.

[ChouDoufu]

you'd think in these culturally progressive days, the only option would be to cast a straight, White male.  preferably someone deeply religious and politically conservative.

[irwinfc]

anything but a woke movie

[Bender Rodriguez]

14 hours ago, rooster59 said:

“They should really consider following the storyline of the comic book and advancing Letitia Wright (who plays Shuri, the tech genius sister of Boseman's character) into that central role,” said Jamil Smith, a senior writer at Rolling Stone.

yeah why not, why not a WHITE female transgender ?

[polpott]

 Chiwetel Ejiofor is a shoe in for the role.

 

                                               

 

Great actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in "12 Years A Slave". Same age as Chadwick Boesman.

[Kerryd]

3 minutes ago, polpott said:

 Chiwetel Ejiofor is a shoe in for the role.

 

                                               

 

Great actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in "12 Years A Slave". Same age as Chadwick Boesman.

First saw him as the "Operative" in Serenity. Thought he was great. Didn't realize he is actually younger than Boseman (by about 9 months).

Another one that might do the trick is Donald Glover. 
He player Rich Purnell in the The Martian as well as Lando Calrissian in Solo: A Star Wars Story among others.

[douglasspade]

Let's abolish the whole race war and star Jason Statham as the Black Panther.

 

And star Will Smith as the new Batman.

 

Mix it up a bit.

[polpott]

1 minute ago, douglasspade said:

Let's abolish the whole race war and star Jason Statham as the Black Panther.

 

And star Will Smith as the new Batman.

 

Mix it up a bit.

Jason Statham plays the head of the Wakanda tribe in blackface? That would go down well.

 

Ciwetel Ejiofor Was born in London of Nigerian parents who were both of the Igbo tribe which has strange parallels to Wakanda. As such he could bring something very special to the party.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igbo_people

 

The Igbo people  are a meta-ethnicity native to the present-day south-central and southeastern Nigeria and also Equatorial Guinea.^[13] There has been much speculation about the origins of the Igbo people, as it is unknown how exactly the group came to form.^[14] Geographically, the Igbo homeland is divided into two unequal sections by the Niger River – an eastern (which is the larger of the two) and a western section.^[15][16]

 

 

[DrTuner]

Well given Disney's woke push for diversity, make Black Panther a white middle aged straight dude. 

[UnkleMoooose]

How should they handle it? They should cancel it, that way it will be better than the first.

[pacovl46]

22 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

Not another load of tosh, the first one was just a comedy. huge cultural landmark? it's a fantasy and nothing to do with the reality or history of Africa.

You’re completely missing the point! No one ever has said that the movie has anything / is supposed to have anything to do with the reality or history of Africa! It’s also not considered to be a cultural landmark because of its plot! 
 

There are extremely few black superheroes and even less movies that feature them, leave alone a movie that’s solemnly dedicated to them apart from Blade and Luke Cage. This movie is a huge cultural landmark because it was the first Hollywood movie ever that featured an entirely black cast!  

Edited September 6, 2020 by pacovl46

[mr mr]

23 hours ago, rooster59 said:

How Disney should handle 'Black Panther 2' after Chadwick Boseman's death

get a replacement actor ? 

[Orton Rd]

1 hour ago, pacovl46 said:

You’re completely missing the point! No one ever has said that the movie has anything / is supposed to have anything to do with the reality or history of Africa! It’s also not considered to be a cultural landmark because of its plot! 
 

There are extremely few black superheroes and even less movies that feature them, leave alone a movie that’s solemnly dedicated to them apart from Blade and Luke Cage. This movie is a huge cultural landmark because it was the first Hollywood movie ever that featured an entirely black cast!  

It was not entirely a black cast there was a white guy they made racist remarks to

[DrTuner]

2 hours ago, pacovl46 said:

You’re completely missing the point! No one ever has said that the movie has anything / is supposed to have anything to do with the reality or history of Africa! It’s also not considered to be a cultural landmark because of its plot! 
 

There are extremely few black superheroes and even less movies that feature them, leave alone a movie that’s solemnly dedicated to them apart from Blade and Luke Cage. This movie is a huge cultural landmark because it was the first Hollywood movie ever that featured an entirely black cast!  

It's a good movie but a landmark? Nah, it's based on a Marvel comic from years ago. That might have been a landmark, even the timing would fit better. A pity an entertaining movie is being politicised. Also a pity Chadwick is gone. I liked his style.

[mtls2005]

On 9/5/2020 at 9:14 PM, ChouDoufu said:

you'd think in these culturally progressive days, the only option would be to cast a straight, White male.  preferably someone deeply religious and politically conservative

 

20 hours ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

yeah why not, why not a WHITE female transgender ?

 

In the comics, one story line has Kasper Cole (White Tiger) take on the mantle of Black Panther. He is the son of a Black (police-) Man and a Jewish woman. "Kasper" is a play on Casper, and 'Cole', well you get it. This one probably wouldn't work, except as a lead-in to BP2 - inspired amateur person steps in, no powers - has some success but gets bailed out by the new BP in Act I.

 

Still amazing to me that Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with this character in 1966, a few months before the formation of the Black Panther party.

 

I was a Marvel kid, first 10 cents, then 12 cents (price per issue).

 

No clue what they will do with the BP franchise? Need to address the story and the actor. Maybe a half-brother or cousin?

 

Ryan Coogler should be able to handle it.

 

Donald Glover was rumored to being pitched a role in BP2, before the tragic news about Chadwick. He of course appeared in Spiderman: Homecoming as a minor character, The Prowler. He's awesomely talented but not seeing him as BP?

 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2020 by mtls2005

[Katipo]

If you follow the comics, having the character's sister 'Shuri', move into the role, is completely in line with the story and not controversial at all. It is simply the most logical move forward.

[pacovl46]

20 hours ago, DrTuner said:

It's a good movie but a landmark? Nah, it's based on a Marvel comic from years ago. That might have been a landmark, even the timing would fit better. A pity an entertaining movie is being politicised. Also a pity Chadwick is gone. I liked his style.

Again, it’s not considered to be a landmark because of its plot, but of its predominantly black cast! And yes, it’s a pity that he’s gone. 43 is just so not the age to go! 

Edited September 7, 2020 by pacovl46

[pacovl46]

20 hours ago, Orton Rd said:

It was not entirely a black cast there was a white guy they made racist remarks to

Ok, you want some cheese to go with that whine? 

[Pattaya46]

Quote

the plan at the moment is for T’Challa to be written out of Black Panther 2 before the story starts  as he’ll apparently die off-screen. Shuri will then assume the mantle and become Wakanda’s new protector on a permanent basis. 

from Disney Has Reportedly Decided On How To Proceed With Black Panther 2

[Kerryd]

On 9/6/2020 at 11:25 AM, douglasspade said:

Let's abolish the whole race war and star Jason Statham as the Black Panther.

 

And star Will Smith as the new Batman.

 

Mix it up a bit.

Except that Will Smith is/was already playing Deadshot, who wants to kill Batman.

Side note: Smith apparently isn't going to be in the Suicide Squad sequel due to scheduling conflicts (or maybe he suspects the sequel will suck worse than "Birds of Prey" did). It's rumoured that Idras Elba may be tagged to play Deadshot instead (unless he becomes the next James Bond of course and has to bow out due to "scheduling" conflicts).
 

On 9/6/2020 at 7:44 PM, pacovl46 said:

This movie is a huge cultural landmark because it was the first Hollywood movie ever that featured an entirely black cast!  

There were a couple of white actors (Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis), but it was predominately a black cast and a black director.

One problem the studio and producers have to contend with when it comes to a Black Panther sequel is what happens if they say, cast Letitia Wright (Shuri) as the lead and then the movie bombs (for whatever reason, poor script, poor directing, poor supporting cast, competing against even better movies released at the same time, etc).

It would put a big damper on not just another Black Panther movie, but also on casting a black woman as the lead character in any other movies. (Look what happened with Catwoman and Halle Berry. She won the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress that year and the film won 3 more Raspberries to go with it. Berry's career took quite a hit after that. Over the next 15 years she appeared in 2 X-Men movies and some other stuff no one has heard of before getting a small part in the Kingsman sequel and then a supporting role in John Wick 3.)
And Berry has an Oscar (only black woman to win one so far apparently) as well as numerous other awards.

Letitia could put on an Oscar worthy performance and still get crushed because of people putting more effort into being "woke" than into making it a good story/movie. 

They could do something like a storyline where she is supposed to take over but declines for some reason and then a "distant" relative receives a summons and they have a battle between all the possible contenders and (who ever is deemed the most "sellable" face") wins and becomes the new Black Panther.

There are numerous storyline possibilities of course, depending on how adventurous the studio execs want to be. But they are not going to throw hundreds of millions into a movie they think will bomb.

Look at the last Mummy movie. It was supposed to launch DC's "Dark Universe" with future movies involving other monsters (like Dracula, Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde, The Invisible Man) and of course, a "team up" called the "Dark Army".
Dracula Untold was actually the first of the Dark Universe movies, but it bombed like the Mummy did.

Tom Cruise apparently was the main reason The Mummy sucked as he supposedly demanded numerous script changes to make the film more about him and less about "the mummy". 
Fans, used to the Brendan Fraser "Mummy" movies, probably weren't as enthused with the Tom Cruise version.

As a result of those 2 movies bombing, DC has put a hold on the "Dark Universe" for the time being and even The Invisible Man (2020 version) isn't being promoted very well. (I never even heard about it until this morning and looking at the cast, there isn't a single name in it that I recognize except maybe Elizabeth Moss and she is more well known for her TV roles than her movie appearances.)

So you can imagine that the people behind the scenes at Marvel will have a long, hard think about who should be the next Black Panther and they will have some delicate decisions to make no matter who they choose.

[thaibeachlovers]

Disney should make in animation, like when they made movies worth seeing.

[DrTuner]

2 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Disney should make in animation, like when they made movies worth seeing.

That's was a long time ago. Walt must be turning like a lathe in his grave for all this wokeness.

 

 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 9/9/2020 at 12:24 PM, Kerryd said:

Letitia could put on an Oscar worthy performance and still get crushed because of people putting more effort into being "woke" than into making it a good story/movie. 

No could be about it. In such a movie it's guaranteed to be woke and a bad movie.

 

On 9/9/2020 at 12:24 PM, Kerryd said:

It would put a big damper on not just another Black Panther movie, but also on casting a black woman as the lead character in any other movies. (Look what happened with Catwoman and Halle Berry. She won the Golden Raspberry award for Worst Actress that year and the film won 3 more Raspberries to go with it. Berry's career took quite a hit after that. Over the next 15 years she appeared in 2 X-Men movies and some other stuff no one has heard of before getting a small part in the Kingsman sequel and then a supporting role in John Wick 3.)
And Berry has an Oscar (only black woman to win one so far apparently) as well as numerous other awards.

I've never liked Berry in anything, and I've seen a few. It's almost like they keep saying she's great in the hope that if they keep saying it enough one movie she really will be.

Thankfully I missed Catwoman.

It's not as though I dislike black actors per se- Sidney Poitier was rightly regarded as one of cinemas great actors and I have no argument with that at all. Many other excellent black actors, but Berry never got it right IMO.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 9/9/2020 at 12:24 PM, Kerryd said:

Tom Cruise apparently was the main reason The Mummy sucked as he supposedly demanded numerous script changes to make the film more about him and less about "the mummy". 
Fans, used to the Brendan Fraser "Mummy" movies, probably weren't as enthused with the Tom Cruise version.

The movie started well and descended into ....................... so rubbish I can't even remember what happened, however if Cruise was the problem they should have manned up and told him to "naff off". Too many actors think they are special, but their day is nearly over. CGI is so good humans won't be needed much longer.

De Caprio ruined "The Beach" by demanding the entire point of the book be changed, but Danny Boyle was just as much to blame for kowtowing to Leo.

[Kerryd]

3 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

No could be about it. In such a movie it's guaranteed to be woke and a bad movie.

 

I've never liked Berry in anything, and I've seen a few. It's almost like they keep saying she's great in the hope that if they keep saying it enough one movie she really will be.

Thankfully I missed Catwoman.

It's not as though I dislike black actors per se- Sidney Poitier was rightly regarded as one of cinemas great actors and I have no argument with that at all. Many other excellent black actors, but Berry never got it right IMO.

I've only really seen her in the X-men movies, Swordfish (nice boobs), the one Bond film (Die Another Day) and Catwoman. 

She won the Oscar for Monster's Ball I think, never watched it. Same for Gothika. Actually, looking at IMDB, it doesn't look like she was in much of anything noteworthy other than the films I just mentioned.

However, she was riding a wave there in the early 2000's, right up until Catwoman. Probably got lucky they didn't write her out of the next couple of X-men movies !

Thinking about it though, besides say Danai Gurira (Avengers, The Walking Dead), Halle Berry and say Tessa Thomson (Thor: Ragnarok), there's not a lot of black female "action" movie stars. (I have probably overlooked a bunch as I don't watch a lot of TV shows.) Thandie Newton and Rosario Dawson aren't really "action" type actresses. Gees, I'm drawing a blank even trying to think of any other black actresses that could fit the bill. 

Ah well. Time will tell !
 

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, Kerryd said:

I've only really seen her in the X-men movies, Swordfish (nice boobs), the one Bond film (Die Another Day) and Catwoman. 

She won the Oscar for Monster's Ball I think, never watched it. Same for Gothika. Actually, looking at IMDB, it doesn't look like she was in much of anything noteworthy other than the films I just mentioned.

However, she was riding a wave there in the early 2000's, right up until Catwoman. Probably got lucky they didn't write her out of the next couple of X-men movies !

Thinking about it though, besides say Danai Gurira (Avengers, The Walking Dead), Halle Berry and say Tessa Thomson (Thor: Ragnarok), there's not a lot of black female "action" movie stars. (I have probably overlooked a bunch as I don't watch a lot of TV shows.) Thandie Newton and Rosario Dawson aren't really "action" type actresses. Gees, I'm drawing a blank even trying to think of any other black actresses that could fit the bill. 

Ah well. Time will tell !
 

If it's OK for black actors to play ethnically white characters, then it's OK for white actors to play ethnically black characters.

[DrTuner]

9 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

She won the Oscar for Monster's Ball I think, never watched it.

It's alright. She did a good job, but I think the oscar was more wokeness motivated. Oscars don't mean movies are good anymore, haven't for a while. Billy Bob Thornton did great in that movie. Worth a watch, even if the story itself is not that special.

Edited September 10, 2020 by DrTuner