The world mourned the death of Chadwick Boseman. His fans were shocked by the news, and so as his colleagues. It appeared that no one from his Marvel family was aware of his illness too.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel and Disney were, also, in the dark about Boseman's colon cancer. Apparently, the 43-year-old actor believed until about a week before his death that he would beat his cancer and he would return as T'Challa in Black Panther 2.
THR cited some sources revealing that Boseman, also, kept his illness a secret to Marvel, including to chief creative officer Kevin Feige. According to the insiders, on the day that Boseman died, Feige received an urgent email regarding the actor but with no further information.
By the time Feige read the message, Boseman had already died. Everyone in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Disney Studio were shocked because no one in both companies knew that Chadwick had been battling cancer for four years.
It appeared that, outside of his family, only a handful of people knew about Boseman's situation. The small circle includes his agent, trainer, producing partner, and 42 director, Brian Helgeland. Apparently, it was Boseman's wish and they respected his decision to keep to themselves.
Spike Lee echoed the sentiment. He and Boseman worked together in the 2020 war film Da 5 Bloods. In his tribute for Boseman, Lee said no one in their movie cast and crew knew that the actor was sick when they did the film last year.
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler, also, admitted that he wasn't aware of the details of Boseman's illness as he kept it to himself and with a very few people close to him. Coogler added he spent last year working on the Black Panther sequel believing that Boseman would star in it.
Black Panther 2 was, originally, set to start filming in March. It was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Boseman was preparing for the filming that is supposed to start this month.
Now, observers were weighing on the options that Marvel and Disney could do in Black Panther 2. One is to replace Boseman but the next actor who will play Wakanda King T'Challa will most likely be compared to his predecessor.
Another option is to make T'Challa's sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), the new Black Panther. THR said this is a more reasonable alternative as this already aligns with events in one of the comic book series on which the film is based.
