I Like to Watch | Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
No one really flinched when Tony Stark's wingman, Colonel James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes, went from Terrence Howard to Don Cheadle. Sure, it was a bit jarring but Iron Man 2 just glossed over the difference as if most couldn't tell the difference from one black actor to the next. I mean, it wasn't like Howard died. He just wanted fair compensation and the powers that be decided to replace him instead of pay him. Such is Hollywood (and I'd hazard a guess more likely Hollywood for black people than for others). We took it in stride and did our best to enjoy a sub-par Marvel sequel.
If Howard had died? There may have been a bit more responsibility on the creative team to deal with that absence in a less blunt manner. You can't just replace an actor who is deceased, right?
Wrong.
In 1955, Ed Wood Jr. tried to revive the career of one of his heroes, Bela Lugosi of Dracula fame, and cast him in Plan 9 From Outer Space. Lugosi, in the middle of filming, died from cardiac arrest. Wood had an obvious dilemma to solve and solve it he did. He replaced Lugosi in the remaining scenes with his wife's chiropractor who looked nothing like Lugosi. Plan 9 was a bomb but now enjoys a ridiculous cult status. Lugosi was buried in his Dracula costume and the whole episode was then chronicled in the 1994 Tim Burton film Ed Wood.
Paul Walker was one half of the Fast & Furious franchise with creator Vin Diesel until in 2013 during the filming of the seventh installment he died in a Porsche accident. Diesel decided to finish filming with Walker's brothers acting as stand-ins with CGI and let the film serve as a truly moving send-off for Walker. We all knew he had died but the final shots of the film became a cinematic obituary. As a fan of the series, I cried.
When Chadwick Boseman died in 2020 from colon cancer, writer/director Ryan Coogler had, arguably, one of the most difficult tasks along these lines that any director has had. Boseman first and foremost was a fantastic, award-winning actor. Second, as T'Challa (aka The Black Panther) he had heralded in one of the most culturally significant films in generations, bringing millions of black audience members to come see a fully black Marvel blockbuster. T'Challa was the first superhero to come to Steve Rogers aid in Endgame. He was debatably the best part of the What If? series. Coogler couldn't replace Boseman with anyone (let alone a chiropractor) and he couldn't CGI him like Carrie Fisher at the end of Rogue One. Yet a sequel to Black Panther was inevitable.
It's no secret that I've not been thrilled with the last few MCU offerings. Hell, I hated Thor: Love and Thunder and, to be fair to that movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has made me hate Taika Waititi's nose-thumb of a movie even more. Wakanda Forever is a tour de force, an example of how an MCU movie should be made, and extraordinary achievement created under extraordinary circumstances. Wakanda Forever is the result of a film that is important to those who made it, important to those who see it, and far more than the money generated by the box office receipts.
This is a film that deals with genuine grief in a thoroughly entertaining way. Like Kilmonger, Namor is a villain who does awful things for good reasons. Like the audience who loved the first film, each character deals with the loss of Boseman (T'Challa) in a different way but with such dignity and truth, it's hard to fathom. The stuff that connects this film to the greater arc of the MCU are fine but in the way. The meat of this is the anger and sadness and guilt of grief and the achievement, while in part belongs to the actors and hundreds of filmmaking staff, is really all Coogler's to own.
His leading actor died. Instead of replacing him or finding a convenient way to deal with it, Coogler embraced the death as a part of the narrative, effectively honoring both Boseman and T'Challa in one fell swoop. I'm so goddamned impressed with the depth of creativity and feeling.
Also, it's a really fun movie. It's also a fun movie populated mostly with heroic black women (which aside from The Woman King, I can't think of too many like it). And it does that wonderful thing all the best MCU films do—it sets us up for more.
And, if you know me, I always want more.
I want more Wakanda. I want more Namor. I want more Okoye. I want more Julia Louis-Dreyfus. And, please, I want more Coogler.
