Marvel Studios will avoid Chadwick Boseman CGI double in ‘Black Panther 2’

Victoria Alonso, Marvel Studio executive vice president, has made it clear that Marvel Studios has no intentions of using a “digital double” of the late Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther 2.

While it’s unclear how Black Panther 2 will address the absence of its protagonist when it starts production in 2021, Alonso told Clarin that Marvel is taking its time.

Actor Chadwick Boseman at the Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios’ BLACK PANTHER at Dolby Theatre on January 29, 2018 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

“There’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us,” she said. “Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to history and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”

Boseman died in August at the age of 43 after a private four year battle with colon cancer. He was diagnosed in 2016. A statement from his family said that Boseman completed several films in that period such as Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, Marshall, 21 Bridges, and Avengers: Endgame.

Alonso credited Boseman’s role as T’Challa for elevating Marvel Studios as a company and said that his impact is undeniable.

“Because Chadwick was not only a wonder of a human being every day for the five years that we spent together, but it also seems to me that as a character what he did elevated us as a company, and has left his moment in history,” Alonso said.

“I know that sometimes two months go by or three months go by in production and you say, ‘Well, it was a long time.’ But it is not a long time, we have to think carefully about what we are going to do, and how, and think about how we are going to honor the franchise.”

In an Ocotber interview with Net-A-Porter, Guyanese-British actress Letitia Wright, who played Boseman’s onscreen younger sister Shuri, said the idea of returning to film the sequel without him is “strange.”

“We’re just still mourning Chad, so it’s not something I even want to think about,” Wright said. “The thought of doing it without him is kinda strange. We’re just grieving at the moment, so it’s trying to find the light in the midst of it.”

A Twitter user named Clara Nakamura responded to a question asking “What’s heartbreak?” with, “Trying to imagine Black Panther 2 without Chadwick Boseman.”

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