Black Panther and T’Challa Controversy
One of the biggest controversies to hit Black Panther as a franchise and specifically be in the shadow of the release of the film is the Recast T’Challa movement,
which has gained more ground ever since it started. Now, one of the stars of the upcoming Wakanda Forever Received, responds to the recasting demands and what fans are saying.
So chances are, if you’ve looked up Black Panther in the last year, you’ve seen the Recast T’Challa movement again. It’s pretty much been everywhere on the big news sites, and big media.
It was even covered on TMZ, for example, which is absolutely insane. The man behind that man, who I’ve interviewed here, is very passionate about it, loves T’Challa, and his movement to recast T’Challa gained a lot of ground.
Of course, it’s been addressed or hinted at before by people at Marvel Studios, but never specifically like this, where Winston Duke, aka Mbaku, talked with a comic book, and the idea of recasting was brought up,
specifically his response and how he feels about it. And he said that this was Chadwick’s role and that Black Panther was defined by the actor that did it.
So recasting him was not going to happen, and they don’t agree with it. And he says it’s specifically because it’s this iteration that was built off of everything he did that he believes you can’t recast.
So I want to talk about
this a little bit, and honestly, I can kind of see what he’s saying here. When an actor takes on the role, they take on that character, and then they add a little bit of their own into it.
For example, I want to go back to Heath Ledger because I think everybody can see what he put into that role. If anybody would have taken on the role of Joker for Chris Nolan’s third outing,
which originally had Joker in it, it just would not have been the same. Somebody would have been copying what came before. So I kind of get what he’s saying here. And what he’s saying is Chadwick put himself into this character,
and he essentially was acting in a way that he would act in real life, and he made this character, this version his own. So to him, it feels like you can’t recast because somebody would just be doing what Chadwick did.
And I can kind of see what he’s saying here. And again, I don’t want to take sides on either of these arguments just because so many people already are on either one side or another.
Some people are saying now it’s like, wait for a second, so we can recast Thunderbolt Ross, but we can’t recast T’Challa. Again, it’s just becoming a messy argument I don’t want to get into the middle of
because it’s a sensitive thing when we’re talking about an actor passing away. And again, to me, I can’t speak as a person who’s clearly as white as they come about the impact that Chadwick and Black Panther had on people of color. So I don’t even want to get into the middle of that because I’m going to sound like a complete idiot and a bigger idiot than I already sound on a daily basis.
So excuse me for that. But again, I get what he’s saying, but I also get what passionate people are saying. Again, I will make sure I put it up above. I can’t stress enough how great Eman was when I talked to him and the interview we had with him and how he literally spells out why he feels that recasting to Chalice is important. So I’ll leave you guys with that. Again, how do you feel about this? I know
it’s a sensitive subject. That’s why I have no real voice on this. Because to me, again, then who am I to say, right? Look at me. I go outside, I’m going to explode if the sunlight hits me. So, you know.
