Hollywood and his fans around the globe are still reeling from the loss of Chadwick Boseman, who succumbed to cancer last week after a private four-year battle with the illness. It’s tragic news in so many ways, not least because it denies us the countless movies and performances that were ahead of him. Obviously, this includes Black Panther 2, which Boseman was due to star in. In fact, he was set to begin preparing for work on the MCU sequel this very month.
The Hollywood Reporter has spoken to their sources at Disney and discovered that pre-production on Ryan Coogler’s much-anticipated follow-up to his 2018 Oscar nominee was supposed to kick off in September. Filming was then on course to begin in March 2021. This makes sense, considering that it was assigned a May 2022 release date.
The Black Panther train had been going full steam ahead as Boseman had kept his health issues a secret from all but a few trusted non-family members. According to a source close to him, the 43-year-old actor was convinced he would pull through and be able to regain the weight necessary to play the superhero right up to a week prior to his passing.
THR says that Disney is just as stunned by the news as anyone, then, and at this stage, they’re not thinking about what it means for the future of the MCU and are instead focusing on finding the best way to pay tribute to the star. At the same time, though, the outlet writes that they’re well aware of the difficult task ahead of them in producing a sequel to a billion-dollar hit without a leading man. But it’s apparently been agreed upon that this is an issue for a slightly later time.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Black Panther 2, then, but for now, everyone’s still grieving the loss of an incredible talent at such a young age.