The final live-action performance of Chadwick Boseman’s career is currently dominating Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched list, with the actor receiving rave reviews from critics and subscribers alike for his phenomenal turn in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The streaming service were already planning a major awards season push for the movie, and Boseman is widely considered the frontrunner to pick up the Oscar for Best Actor next year, and he might even pull off an unprecedented double win if his supporting role in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods gains similar recognition.
Netflix dramas mark the final feature-length outings for a talent taken far too soon, but it seems tragically fitting that his last credit sees him return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as T’Challa. It was Black Panther that turned Boseman into a megastar, after all, and he’s left behind a massive legacy as the leading man of a $1.3 billion box office hit that scooped an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, inspired a generation and made a huge imprint on popular culture.
It was common knowledge that one episode of Marvel’s What If…? would follow T’Challa becoming the Guardians of the Galaxy’s Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill, but Kevin Feige has now confirmed that not only were Boseman’s recording sessions completed, but he lent his vocal talents to multiple installments of the upcoming Disney Plus series.
“These are all sorts of stories we couldn’t explore through live action. Chadwick Boseman came in about four times and recorded numerous episodes. In hindsight, it’s very moving.”
Almost every major star from the history of the MCU is returning for What If…?, with Jeffrey Wright’s Watcher providing the connective tissue that ties all of the theoretical scenarios together, but no episode is going to be anywhere near as bittersweet or poignant as the one that features Chadwick Boseman’s presence on the screen for the very last time.
