Despite fans’ hopes, the Black Panther will not be appearing in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
With buzz that the fifth episode of the MCU series will have some major character cameos, fans are hopeful that among them would be T’Challa. But producer Nate Moore has stated there are no plans for anyone to continue in the late Chadwick Boseman’s role.
Panther vs Zemo
A reason fans are pushing for the Panther to be in the series is how it makes sense to the storyline.
In episode 3, needing information on the Flag-Smashers, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) and Sam (Anthony Mackie) broke Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) out of prison. The pair naturally couldn’t trust Zemo as he led them to Madripoor and later Latvia.
There, the trio is confronted by Ayo (Florence Kasumba), one of the Dora Milaje, the female warriors of Wakanda. They haven’t forgotten how Zemo killed King T’Chaka in Captain America: Civil War and out to bring him to face Wakandan justice.
While Zemo escaped during a fight between the Dora Milaje and the heroes, the Dora Milaje are never known for giving up and still hunting Zemo and perhaps reporting back to Wakanda on their progress.
This pushes the idea that episode 5 will utilize CGI to recreate T’Challa, who obviously would want justice for his father’s murder.
It would also honor Chadwick Boseman, who shockingly passed away after a battle with colon cancer last August.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, producer Nate Moore made it clear that such hopes are merely a fan dream.
“No. I can say. That is not going to happen. I would be honest if it was. Chad’s passing is a whole life thing, and I loved the guy as much as the character. I think we have to be very careful and thoughtful about when he appears, because he meant so much to a lot of people as much as he meant to us. But yeah, we wouldn’t use that as a ‘Come next week; maybe you’ll see Panther!’ We wouldn’t, and he’s not.”
The Panther legacy
While a T’Challa cameo would be terrific, it also would be challenging to pull off.
While CGI has advanced in impressive degrees, trying to recreate T’Challa with Boseman’s appearance put on a body double would be very taxing, especially for a show already as high budget as Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
The Mandalorian indeed pulled off the feat of having Mark Hamill appear as a 30-years younger Luke Skywalker in its finale. But that was with Hamill’s involvement and only for a few minutes.
More importantly, is that Marvel has consistently repeated that there are no plans ever to recast the role of T’Challa in honor of Boseman. This leads to speculation the upcoming Black Panther sequel will find a way to have a new character become the Panther instead.
While a CGI cameo is possible, it may also be seen as “cheapening” Boseman and his amazing work in the role.
Fans will at least be able to hear Boseman one last time as he completed voice work for Marvel’s upcoming animated What If? series with an episode showing an alternate reality T’Challa becoming Star-Lord.
Thus, as much as fans may miss T’Challa, the chances of seeing Boseman in the role again are simply a dream.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming new episodes Fridays on Disney+.