The latest episode of Disney+ series Marvel‘s What If…? has been dedicated to the late Chadwick Boseman.
The animated series features the last appearance of the late Black Panther actor, who lends his voice to T’Challa for one last time after recording his lines before his death.
“Dedicated to our friend, our inspiration, and our hero: Chadwick Boseman,” reads a tribute that appears onscreen at the end of the episode.
The episode’s head writer AC Bradley opened up about writing the episode and realising it would be Boseman’s final performance.
“I have the sad honour of writing some of his last lines in the MCU. I obviously did not know that when I was writing them,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Chadwick Boseman understood the importance of Black Panther. He understood how important it is that young people see a Black man standing shoulder to shoulder with Captain America and Thor Odinson, so that they know a Black man saves the world just the same as anyone else.”
She added: “He came in to record, and I joked that he didn’t bring his A-game; he brought every damn sport there is. He made sure that this was going to be the episode that shined, but we did not realise why. And the world is a little sadder for it.”
The episode’s director Bryan Andrews also revealed that Chadwick Boseman had been excited to explore other paths for T’Challa following the storyline of his What If…? episode.
“We were already thinking of finding a way to do spin-offs and stuff like that of him and his crew to have these wonderful adventures, because [while] the character was so different, you can keep some of the virtue and some of the integrity and all the other important aspects of T’Challa as we know him, Black Panther, without necessarily the pressure of the kingdom Wakanda,” he said.
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