--- title: How Wakanda Forever Deals With Chadwick Boseman's Death description: The late Chadwick Boseman's absence from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever can be felt. Here's how the film deals with his loss. canonical: https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/ author: Moises Mendez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-11T02:00:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:45.188Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: How 'Black Panther' Handles Chadwick Boseman's Death og:description: The late Chadwick Boseman's absence from 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' can be felt og:url: https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9772ee1053b48d4e/69892cfbfb4eac061389643c/ap18077490446715.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Film Box Office og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How 'Black Panther' Handles Chadwick Boseman's Death twitter:description: The late Chadwick Boseman's absence from 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' can be felt twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9772ee1053b48d4e/69892cfbfb4eac061389643c/ap18077490446715.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How _Black Panther: Wakanda Forever_ Handles Chadwick Boseman’s Death  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Nov 11, 2022 2:00 AM UTC  Chadwick Boseman in "Black Panther." Chadwick Boseman in "Black Panther."Marvel Studios/Disney—AP  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Nov 11, 2022 2:00 AM UTC **_Warning: This post contains spoilers for_** **Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.** The late Chadwick Boseman’s absence in [_Black Panther: Wakanda Forever_ ](https://time.com/6230456/black-panther-wakanda-forever-review/)can be felt. Without the [heart Boseman brought](https://time.com/5884740/chadwick-boseman-obit/) to the role, the Black Panther character is just not the same. People fell in love with Boseman’s charisma and attitude. He [made movie history](https://time.com/black-panther/) playing the first Black superhero to get a stand-alone movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His death in August 2020, following a private battle with colon cancer, came as a shock to many people. Boseman died as _Black Panther_ director Ryan Coogler was working on the script for the sequel. Coogler made adjustments to the script to address the loss of Boseman in the new film, which is now streaming on Disney+. The movie begins with Shuri in her lab, scrambling to figure out a way to help her dying brother, when her mother, Queen Ramonda, arrives. With tears in her eyes, Queen Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, tells Shuri that T’Challa is gone. The Wakandans mourn the loss of their king, and what’s left of the royal family walks the streets of the city with his helmet. They gather in a circle around his casket in the woods and send his spirit off to rest with the ancestors. The anniversary of T’Challa’s death sets the movie in motion when Queen Ramonda takes Shuri to a cove and they have a conversation about death, grief, and mourning. Towards the end of the conversation, they are interrupted by Namor.  Coogler, who used T'Challa's conflict with Killmonger to make the character more relatable, with Boseman on set Marvel/Disney—Kobal/Shutterstock After Boseman died, arguments and theories flew over whether his role would be recast. A popular theory among the Black Panther fandom—that Shuri would take over as the Black Panther, as she did in the comic books—became the plot of the sequel. Coogler has been open about how Boseman’s death affected him, telling _Entertainment Weekly_ he was close to [stepping away from Hollywood altogether](https://ew.com/movies/black-panther-ryan-coogler-almost-quit-filmmaking-after-chadwick-boseman-death/). “I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business,’” he said. “I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, \[let alone\] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’” Coogler said he thought a lot about the last conversation he had with Boseman and decided it was best to “keep going.” Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, recently appeared on [_Good Morning America_](https://youtu.be/rPV8TRb%5FrQc) in her first interview since his passing. “It has been the most challenging two years I’ve ever had in my life,” she told Whoopi Goldberg. She said she was happy that for the time she had with her husband before he passed. “I can’t believe that I was so lucky. I can’t believe that I got to love this person. And I also got them to love me too.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/"},"headline":"How Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Handles Chadwick Boseman’s Death","datePublished":"2022-11-11T02:00:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:45.188Z","description":"The late Chadwick Boseman's absence from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever can be felt","url":"https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/","keywords":["movies","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9772ee1053b48d4e/69892cfbfb4eac061389643c/ap18077490446715.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Moises Mendez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9772ee1053b48d4e/69892cfbfb4eac061389643c/ap18077490446715.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Film Box Office","caption":"Film Box Office","creditText":"Marvel Studios/Disney—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6232110/black-panther-wakanda-forever-chadwick-boseman-death/","name":"How Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Handles Chadwick Boseman’s Death"}}]}] ```