Today, I went to the Movies first time in a while and watched Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever. I went for a few reasons, 1) to see if the hype was true, 2) to see what they did when they had to change the script and 3) to see how much respect Marvel did for the late Chadwick. I decided to go Gold Class and treat myself because it has been a long year, and despite every low, there should be moments of joy.
Screenwriters have a hard job. They have to come up with a story that pleases the CEO and Producers but keeps the heart and purpose of the story they have in mind. They have to make the scenes real enough to keep the audience going but not too dramatic that it seems like overkill. It takes months or years to come up with a draft, only for it to be rewritten. Now, this wasn’t anyone’s fault, but they had to start again. It’s a devasting process. Heartbreaking. Now some reasons for rewriting are budget, disagreements or change of direction but when a cast member dies before filming even starts, this really throws the writers and all involved. There are two options ‘scrap the project’ or ‘let’s redo and honour him.’ I am so glad they did the second.
TV series and Movies have a way of ‘killing’ people off; they either write them out of the series or movie franchise by having them die on-screen or off-screen. Now again, the reasons for this vary from actors walking away, the producer wanting them out or because the storyline needs a change. But when an actor dies between the filming of seasons or during the making of a movie, things have to be different. Take Fast and Furious; Paul Walker's death in 2013 during the production of Furious 7 meant they had to use GCI to finish the movie before having him not return. Westwing mentioned Leo’s death because actor John Spencer passed away. Same with Chadwick Boseman, they had to mention his death to help honour him. Now even though there was drama with the cast and complications with concept, they stuck with it to the very end.
When Stan Lee passed away, they did the Marvel montage with all of Stan’s cameos. As a way to thank him for all he did. Black Panther started the same way with a silent Marvel montage of Chadwick’s appearances. This was only one way they showed honour and respect to him.
I went to the movies to see if the movie was worth the hype, if it was worth the wait, and did they respect Chadwick’s untimely death in a way that would have him remembered. I certainly enjoyed the movie - even though it was long - and it certainly had the characters’ raw emotions because of death. I won’t spoil the movie, but I am glad that Marvel didn’t make a mess of the movie and tried to gloss over the loss of Boseman. I am giving credit to where the credit is due. To the screenwriters and the actors.