Black Panther: Wakanda Forever actor Winston Duke, who reprised his role as M’Baku in the Marvel sequel, is acknowledging the so-called #RecastTChalla movement that has surrounded the build-up to the movie’s release.
Actor Chadwick Boseman, who played King T’Challa in 2018’s Black Panther, passed away unexpectedly in 2020 following a private battle with colon cancer a mere couple of months before filming for the sequel was supposed to begin. Thus, the difficult decision was made to rework Wakanda Forever so that the characters are also reeling from the death of T’Challa from a mysterious illness within the world of the movie. But when news of this plot change surfaced, some people on social media campaigned to reverse course and simply recast the T’Challa character with the hashtag #RecastTChalla and a Change.org petition.
Duke indicated in an interview with Esquire that the #RecastTChalla campaign too often overlooks that the character’s death is meant as a respectful homage to Boseman and a decision made in the midst of grief. As Duke explained,
“[T]hey center their own need for a character when none of this would be possible if the people who brought this to life didn’t participate, from behind the scenes to in front of it.”
Plus, the article pointed out that T’Challa arguably ranks among other classic superhero characters like Spider-Man and Batman, who have both been frequently depicted in numerous projects by many different actors. Sometimes multiple actors portraying the same superhero even overlap in the same movie, as was the case in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Hence, Duke explained that T’Challa’s reprisal by a different actor down the line is basically an inevitability at this point.
“There’s no way they’ll never remake Black Panther in the future. There’s no way that the saga and interpretation of T’Challa, King of Wakanda, will end. He is canon. So trust that it’ll come. But allow this to be a human experience.”
As a testament to how frequently different actors can take on the mantle of well-established superheroes, Duke himself has incidentally voiced Batman in a podcast drama called Batman Unburied.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently playing at a theater near you.
