It’s unfair that we associate actors with their roles when they pass away more than we usually get to with the people they were themselves. But that’s the reality of it.. They play a part, we love them for it, but it’s the part we know. The part we recognize.
So, for me, it’s sad because I don’t know enough about Chadwick the person. And there was obviously so much there to know, and to respect.
But I have the role he played in the films that I adore.
When I saw Black Panther, I was struck in a very special way. I realized, watching it, that I was so affected by this movie, as a white guy in his mid-40s. The story and the portrayal were so good, so true to the heroism that I long for from a comic book movie. It inspired me.
And yet I felt so much more emotion about it because I knew that, for many, many people, this was going to be to them what I had experienced as a child the first time I saw Reeve as Superman up on the big screen. What I felt again when I saw Evans as Cap. Something that made me believe in more. But my advantage was that there were so many white superhero men in the movies, so there was no shortage, I could take my pick of them and find the ones that meant the most to me. And yes, I know that just because Superman or Captain America weren’t persons of color doesn’t mean that children who weren’t white couldn’t also feel the same inspiration that I took from them. I obviously felt that way watching Chadwick play Black Panther.
But it’s something else to see someone up on the screen who looks like you. Maybe the “mind’s eye” version of you. I don’t know how to explain it, because I’ve never experienced it. But I can understand it. Representation matters. There should be black superheroes (Blade, of course, was around just a few years before, but I’d argue that Blade was Rated R and was more of an action movie with vampires than a superhero movie). There should be women who are superheroes. There should be LGBTQ+ superheroes. And there should be a lot of them. Because everyone should get to choose not just the one hero that looks like them, but their favorite of the bunch.
I’d still been riding the high of Evans making me believe in Captain America in the way that Reeve had made me believe in Superman so much that I didn’t even need to stop and think about how Chadwick Boseman made me believe in Black Panther. Or how the whole cast in that film made me believe in the fictional nation of Wakanda and what it represented to the world. How that should exist in our world, and how badly we need it to.
I didn’t need to stop and think about it because I was privileged enough to not have to. But in every way, it’s true. I loved everything about that movie. It accomplished so much, in my eyes, and so much more than I will probably ever get to see it for.
And Chadwick is someone that can not and should not be replaced in that role. What he brought to it was everything. He is irreplaceable.
But the legacy of him playing it, and what it means, is exactly why at some point we will have to look at putting someone else up on the screen in that part. As Black Panther. As T’Challa. Because it needs to keep existing. It needs to be up on that screen, in that Marvel pantheon. And there needs to be a Shuri movie. And there needs to be a Falcon movie (or series). And there needs to be more and more and more.
Obviously, right now is not really the time to be talking or thinking about who should be next. I don’t envy anyone that has to take part of the conversation or thought process. It’s so tragic that it has to happen at all. But eventually it will.
All I can be right now, aside from sad at how we lost this fantastic actor and person, is how grateful I am to him that he was able to play this part and be a part of this movie. Not only to be a part of the history-making Marvel films, but to make history in The Black Panther. To show so many film watches and film makers what could be accomplished. To prove to the industry that the opportunities should have been there a long time ago.
So I remember Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, the Black Panther. A comic book superhero. But I see him as a hero himself.
We lost a hero today.
