{"id":30752,"date":"2020-12-16T19:32:22","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T00:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=30752"},"modified":"2020-12-17T11:17:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T16:17:57","slug":"opinion-long-live-the-king-why-tchalla-must-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/entertainment\/2020\/12\/16\/opinion-long-live-the-king-why-tchalla-must-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Long Live The King: Why T\u2019Challa Must Return"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Dec. 10, Disney\u2019s official Twitter account released an abundance of tweets, providing details about their upcoming projects. Among them was information for the sequel to their high profile film, \u201cBlack Panther<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHonoring Chadwick Boseman\u2019s legacy & portrayal of T\u2019Challa, @MarvelStudios will not recast the character.\u201d Disney wrote, \u201cbut [we] will explore the world of Wakanda & the rich characters introduced in the first film.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chadwick Boseman, who played the titular hero – the Black Panther – is one of many celebrities who died in 2020<\/a> on Aug. 28. His cause of death was colon cancer, which he had not disclosed to the public. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Marvel Entertainment\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The news of his passing provided a wave of emotional responses throughout the internet. Marvel Studio\u2019s Twitter account honored him by keeping a pinned tweet stating Boseman will, \u201calways be our King\u201d while fans of varying ages made a variety of tributes, some of them just by vowing Wakanda Forever.

Soon after, fans of Boseman began wondering what exactly would become of the character T\u2019Challa. Many, myself included, felt it would be jarring to see a new actor take Boseman\u2019s place so abruptly; therefore, it was a relief to see it stated that Boseman\u2019s role would not be given to another. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, neither Disney nor the team behind \u201cBlack Panther\u201d did not announce that T\u2019Challa was deceased and this was interesting to think about in regards to the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although I believe T\u2019Challa should not yet be recast, I do believe it would be distasteful to remove him from this movie franchise entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, T\u2019Challa has to be back on the big screen. Not right now, but eventually he must return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Challa is the first black superhero within American mainstream comic books, debuting in July 1966. In Stan Lee\u2019s own words, his creation was not a result of civil rights, but due to the fact he had acknowledged there were no black superheroes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u2019Challa was first seen in \u201cThe Fantastic Four\u201d #52-53. Later, he would appear alongside heroes such as Captain America and he even joined The Avengers by 1966.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Gargoyle X\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The series that would flesh him out as a character would be in \u201cJungle Action<\/a>\u201d which lasted from 1973 to 1976. \u201cJungle Action\u201d would also lead to the creation of his foe, Erik Killmonger, which in turn meant the world of Wakanda was now beginning to form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jan. 1977, Marvel would relaunch the T\u2019Challa\u2019s series, titling the comic books to what we presently know as being, \u201cBlack Panther.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the years progressed, T\u2019Challa would appear on television as early as 1994 on the Fantastic Four\u2019s animated series, voiced by the renowned African American actor Keith David (\u201cGreenleaf,\u201d \u201cThe Princess And The Frog\u201d) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Tarver Retro Channel\/ YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, \u201cBlack Panther\u201d would have an animated series on BET where T\u2019Challa was voiced by Djimon Hounsou (\u201cAmistad\u201d, \u201cGuardians of The Galaxy\u201d) yet, it only ran for one season with a total of six episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among various other appearances in Marvel cartoons, T\u2019Challa would make a prominent appearance in, \u201cAvengers Assemble.\u201d He even became the focus of its final season which was aptly titled, \u201cAvengers: Black Panther’s Quest<\/em>.\u201d In this series, he was voiced by James C. Mathias III who still voices him on a recurring basis within video game depictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) , especially fans of African American descent, had been eagerly awaiting for years <\/em>for T\u2019Challa to appear in the live-action films. With Boseman\u2019s portrayal, fans got everything they wanted and more out of this character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Marvel Entertainment\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, although Boseman did a phenomenal job making this ink-drawn character into a living, breathing man – are we not dismissing T\u2019Challa\u2019s historical and iconic impact by removing him from the franchise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having appeared only in three films thus far, T\u2019Challa\u2019s story, as well as his character arc, will be cut short in contrast to his counterparts such as Tony Stark or Thor if he is not recast. It is also particularly a troublesome act to kill off T\u2019Challa when the MCU has already depicted him vanishing due to Thanos\u2019 snap and being in countless, near-death experiences in the titular film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course, T\u2019Challa\u2019s recasting must be done with respect as time should pass in order for fans to heal from Boseman\u2019s death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, another prominent black superhero – Blade, originally debuted as a movie from 1998 to 2004 starring Wesley Snipes in the lead role, and now, it is being given a new television <\/a>adaptation starring Mahershala Ali (\u201cMoonlight,\u201d \u201cLuke Cage\u201d) as the main character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Boseman\u2019s portrayal of T\u2019Challa will be something fans of Marvel will never forget. But, if we solely define Boseman with T\u2019Challa, we risk losing yet another black superhero among our limited few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Source: Marvel Entertainment\/YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ayzha Middlebrooks<\/strong>
Executive Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Dec. 10, Disney\u2019s official Twitter account released an abundance of tweets, providing details about their upcoming projects. Among them was information for the sequel to their high profile film, \u201cBlack Panther.\u201d  \u201cHonoring Chadwick Boseman\u2019s legacy & portrayal of T\u2019Challa, @MarvelStudios will not recast the character.\u201d Disney wrote, \u201cbut [we] will explore the world of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":30762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2104,2616,2112,2109],"tags":[3726,2424,4369,4665,2423,2814],"class_list":["post-30752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured","category-films","category-opinion","tag-ayzha-middlebrooks","tag-black-panther","tag-chadwick-boseman","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-marvel-studios","tag-stan-lee"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Gargoyle-X-YouTube-3-e1608164871153.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-800","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30752"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30768,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30752\/revisions\/30768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}