Mark Ruffalo has paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman on what would have been his 44th birthday. The internet was full of Marvel fans paying their respects to the late Black Panther star yesterday, November 29th, and to the mark the occasion, Ruffalo shared a moving video featuring his late co-star on social media.
The clip captures the cast and crew of Avengers: Infinity War singing happy birthday to Boseman back in 2017, while the T’Challa actor is seen laughing and hugging Anthony Mackie (the Falcon) and Sebastian Stan (the Winter Soldier). “Thinking of your passion, love, and your light today, @chadwickboseman,” Ruffalo wrote in his caption. “Happy Birthday. Wishing we could time travel back to this moment.”
Thinking of your passion, love, and your light today, @chadwickboseman. Happy Birthday. Wishing we could time travel back to this moment. pic.twitter.com/df94mUaS6b
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 29, 2020
Boseman made four appearances as the king of Wakanda – Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. He was due to return as T’Challa in Black Panther 2 prior to his passing as well, and Marvel has now pushed production on the sequel back to next July, though it’s not entirely known how they plan to progress the franchise without him.
We do still have one last performance from the actor still to come, however. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a blues-themed period drama starring Viola Davis as the eponymous singer, hits Netflix next month. Early buzz about it suggests that it could be a major awards contender, with Boseman perhaps in line for a Supporting Actor nod. We’ll have to see if that comes to anything, but a posthumous nomination, let alone a win, would be a touching way for Hollywood to honor an extremely gifted performer gone too soon.
As for Ruffalo, he’ll likely return as Hulk in Disney Plus’ She-Hulk TV series. There’s a chance that Chadwick Boseman provided his voice for an episode of Marvel’s What If…? animated show as well, but that’s yet to be 100% confirmed.
