The summer of 2020 may have seen the untimely passing of beloved actor Chadwick Boseman (Marshall, Get On Up), but those enthralled by his performance as King T’Challa of Wakanda in the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther can look forward to Boseman’s reprisal of the role in the Disney Plus series What If…?, SyFy Wire reports. Boseman reportedly participated in series of recording sessions for the upcoming animated program before his passing, according to a recent Emmy Magazine interview with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige (WandaVision, She-Hulk). Boseman’s involvement was initially announced in the summer of 2019, via Collider.
What If…? is an anthology series where each episode explores an alternate reality inspired by a hypothetical question centered around characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as reported by Emmy Magazine. The first trailer made its public debut during Feige’s 2020 Disney Investor Day presentation. According to SyFy Wire, Boseman contributed his vocal talents to an episode that will reportedly answer the question, “What if T’Challa became Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill?” Early concept art of Boseman’s T’Challa in Star-Lord garb was leaked in September 2019 following the What If…? panel at the D23 Expo, via Fatherly.
The series is hosted and narrated by Jeffrey Wright (Westworld, Basquiat), who reprises his role as the telepathic time-traveling alien Uatu the Watcher from Black Panther, via Marvel Entertainment. Uatu was also the omniscient narrator of the first forty-seven issues of the What If…? comic book series on which the Disney Plus series is based.
This is the first animated television project to come from Disney’s Marvel Studios camp thus far. Feige has already promised that What If…? would continue after its inaugural season. Development discussions regarding season two had allegedly begun to occur by winter of 2019, as reported by ScreenRant.
Boseman’s final on-camera performance was in the historical fiction film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which arrived on Netflix on December 18. Following his passing, he was the subject of special edition of 20/20 titled A Tribute for a King. It is free to watch on the ABC News YouTube channel. The first segment of this four-part special can be viewed below.