T’Challa debuted in July, 1966 in the pages of Fantastic Four #52. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (two Jewish men), T’Challa, otherwise known as Black Panther, is the ruler of Wakanda (created by those same two Jewish men), a fictional African nation with advanced technology and outdated weaponry if you ask the folks at Marvel Studios. The latest in the family to inherit the title of Black Panther, T’Challa went through ritual combat to earn the right to use the title and wear the suit made of Vibranium, a metal from space that can absorb vibrations (hence the name) and kinetic energy directed at it. He also gains enhanced strength and speed through use of a special herb used only by his tribe, the Black Panther Tribe. He has been a member of the Avengers and the Marvel hero brain trust The Illuminati. He’s a long time beloved comic book character who has also appeared in animation TV shows and movies as well as video games, and has a decent sized fan following…among people who aren’t media snobs.

Chadwick Boseman debuted November, 1976, presumably in a hospital, though he was mentioned in prior months as “the baby in mommy’s tummy”. Created by Leroy and Carolyn Boseman, Chadwick had considered becoming an architect but ended up going into acting, performing on stage (even writing a play or two) and the daytime soap opera All My Children. He moved on to other TV shows and movies, including the Egyptian god Thoth in Gods Of Egypt, until landing the role of T’Challa, the Black Panther, in Captain America: Civil War, followed by more MCU movies including his own, fittingly titled Black Panther. Unfortunately I have to end the gag here because this is when we get to Boseman passing away in 2020 of colon cancer. Please note that in no way, shape, or form, am I ignoring or making fun of this man’s career, his faith (it will annoy Hollywood to hear he was a Christian who according to Wikipedia–question the wiki–prayed about taking the role), the tragedy of his passing, his mourning family and friends, or that cancer has claimed another life. I do not know his work because most of his productions outside of the MCU is not in my usual circles but everyone spoke highly of his dedication to the craft and how he approached every character, including T’Challa.

However, T’Challa comes from comics and if it wasn’t for those comics looked down upon by the media snobs there wouldn’t BE a Black Panther in the MCU. This has been one of the factors behind the #RecastTChalla hashtag on Twitter, which was trending last night and got my attention. Another is what T’Challa means to many black fans of the movies and the black kids who saw a character they can admire with the supposed all-important title of “looks like me”. I’ve written about this before but I saw some specific talking points in the trending hashtag on Twitter so I want to address them and the movement that’s been revitalized in the wake of the second movie, Wakanda Forever, and first without not only Boseman but the character this all centers around.

PLEASE DO NOT ATTACK ANY OF THE PEOPLE WHOSE TWEETS SHOW UP IN THIS ARTICLE! THEY ARE AS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION AS WE ARE TO OURS AND WE ALL HAVE A RIGHT TO DISAGREE WITH EACH OTHER…at least for now. ATTACKING THEM ONLY GIVES THEM MORE FUEL TO USE AGAINST THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THE CHARACTERS AND COMICS RATHER THAN PANDERING TO THIS OR THAT GROUP OR PUSHING A SOCIAL CAUSE. IT ALSO MAKES YOU THE JACKASS!

For the other side:, DISAGREEING WITH YOU AND STATING WHY ISN’T AN ATTACK, THAT I MADE INTO AN ARTICLE BECAUSE I HAVE A SITE ABOUT THIS STUFF AND IT WAS EASIER THAN SPENING ALL NIGHT RESPONDING TO TWEETS ON A MOVIE I HAVEN’T SEEN! YOU PUT YOUR OPINION OUT IN PUBLIC LIKE I’M DOING HERE AND THUS SOMEONE IS GOING TO DISAGREE WITH YOU AND STATE WHY. PLEASE DO NOT BE AN @$#HOLE TO ANYONE WHETHER YOU ARE FOR OR AGAINST RECASTING T’CHALLA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that’s out of the way…let’s see who listens and get on with this. Note that some of these tweets, if they’re still up when you read this, may have swearing. I can only censor my own stuff so if that bothers you, you’ve at least been prepared for it. Let’s start with the tweet that made me say “yeah, I’m doing an article”.

It’s not even that. T’Challa has been around since the 1960s, and no, it had nothing to do with the organization of the same name that came out around this time nor any other black nationalist group that has shared that name. (In fact, Marvel had considered changing the name to Black Leopard in order to avoid any confusion on this.) For those of you who only cared about this character because of a few movies and nobody told you The Meteor Man, Spawn, Blade, M.A.N.T.I.S., various Power Rangers, or every black superhero I’ve written about on this site and grew up with existed, some of us were invested in the hero from the beginning. He rarely showed up in my comic collection admittedly, but when he did he was pretty cool. As stated earlier he has been a member of the Avengers, and was considered a must-have for the superhero brain trust The Illuminati, where if memory serves he was one of the members to serve as the conscience of the team (this was during the early days of the deconstruction of heroes, the “Deconstruction Age” if you will). And you had him die of a disease because Boseman did? Not even saving Wakanda or saving a child from a collapsing building…not even rescuing a cat from a tree that happened to be in a minefield or something heroic? No, just “the disease”. That’s disrespect of a character and you should feel bad for it given how much importance Marvel’s PR has given to T’Challa and the black activists they cater to who supported it.

Boseman did not create T’Challa. He’s not even the first actor to play T’Challa. It’s just the others were voice actors so you don’t care. Even the current Spidey & His Amazing Friends has a T’Challa not voiced by Boseman. He’s appeared in TV shows and direct-to-video movies as well as his own poorly-made TV series. Again, if it wasn’t for the comics and cartoons you wouldn’t have a Black Panther, a Shuri, a T’Challa, or anyone else.

And why do you have to tear down black women to uplift black men? For that matter why do you have to tear down black men to uplift black women? Or women in general? Or men in general? Here’s a thought: UPLIFT EVERYONE! Only the villain should be torn down, regardless of race, gender, or other orientation.

Other commenters have mentioned white characters who were recast when their actor retired or died. Dumbledore was probably the best example, and don’t forget The Doctor, who was recast numerous times, with the latest one being black…when Davies gets around to not reusing Tennant, and who keeps calling for the next in a series of the white James Bonds to be Idris Elba? You didn’t need to have a second Black Panther movie out right now. Try one of the other black heroes from Marvel like Blue Marvel or the one I’ve been asking for the past few years, the Prowler! A black man tricked by a white man…oh wait, they made Kingpin black for the sake of one actor…into becoming a criminal for him to gain access to a cool high-tech suit only to be betrayed and having to get back at him? There’s a cool movie in there. You made Black Goliath (or you could just go with Goliath) old like Hank Pym so we never got to see him in action. Maybe flash back to one of his early adventures like you did with Carol Danvers. We also don’t need Riri to be tied to Black Panther’s story because she never was. (I don’t even know if they’ve met in the comics.) Is there some segregated black arm of the MCU, like when the CW DCU tried to relegate Black Lightning to a separate universe from the Arrowverse?

There have been a bunch of different Supermen (Supermans?) even after Christopher Reeves’ accident that left him a quadriplegic. They were able to show him respect (even making him a recurring character on Smallville until he passed away and his legacy was still felt when Margot Kidder played his assistant to continue that storyline). They’re about to replace the late William Hurst as General Ross with Harrison Ford. They didn’t kill Ross off and as far as the MCU goes Ross isn’t considered as important as T’Challa. There are no plans for Ross to get his own movie or even a Disney Plus series. This wouldn’t even be the first black character recast. Because then Marvel owner Ike Perlmutter didn’t like how much Terrance Howard wanted to come back as Rhodey and had him replaced by Don Cheadle. No offense to Cheadle, but Howard nailed the role so much better. On the other hand Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton and Ruffalo is a better Bruce Banner. Why is this one actor so more important than the character he brought to live-action, not even to life, even his family is being on board with a new actor continuing their loved one’s legacy? Kevin Conroy just passed away last week and despite being considered the greatest Batman ever nobody is asking for there to be no new people voicing Bruce Wayne.

Now this is the first I’ve heard about this. Apparently the movie ends with T’Challa having a son…from someone…also named T’Challa, as if replacing a father with a son makes it all better. It’s not the NAME that is important, it’s the character that they’re tossing away. This is the same argument I’ve had with the remake of Battlestar Galactica, a bunch of namesakes. This isn’t T’Challa’s clone with all his memories, it’s some other character named T’Challa with his own memories and life experiences. If I replace you with your son/daughter of the same name it will not be you. (Unless your Piccolo from the Dragon Ball franchise, who was still considered the son of Piccolo at times.) It will be another person that bears your name and that’s not the same thing. We comic readers already saw that when they replaced the decades old character Nick Fury with his black son…somehow…and ruined white Fury with the retcon bomb because the MCU used the Ultimate Universe version that looked like Samuel L. Jackson to get Samuel L. Jackson into the movies to boost the signal. It wasn’t even the virtue signal, they just thought Jackson would be a bigger drawn than, say, having David Hasselhoff come back as Nick Fury for this continuity. (I so want to see father and son together in the MCU with Jackson calling Hasselhoff “dad”.)

And so we come back to the comics. T’Challa has a legacy far longer than Marvel Studios or their shared universe of movies, TV shows, and web series. There were commenters who wanted T’Challa in any Secret Wars stories the MCU makes, wanted to see his romance with Storm if we ever get an MCU version of the X-Men…and hopefully with a happier ending that the marriage-hating comics. Guess what can’t happen now.

Okay, now you’re just being a jackass. NO, you can’t attack this jackass, either. My statement on not attacking people for disagreeing about a movie based on a decades old comic book character still stands. You don’t fight a jackass by being a jackass! That makes YOU BOTH jackasses. Instead, make a positive push for alternatives who can elevate the character and continue the work Boseman did to give black youth someone to inspire them to be better people and escape their situation. You don’t honor someone by ending his work but by continuing it. I still like this idea from the last time I wrote on this topic.

Watch his character in Pacific Rim: Uprising. I think John Boyega could pull it off. Finn would have been a better character if the Disney Star Wars writers knew what they were doing. Other names have been brought up as well but this remains my favorite choice. But…why a portal? Nobody made a comment when Rhodey or Bruce were recast, and I bet the same thing happens with “Thunderbolt” Ross. Just ask if they did something different with their hair and move on as if nothing happened. That’s how it’s usually done.

Yeah, I can’t put it any better myself. And you can’t blame it on me being white. Many of those tweets were from black voices because–I know this is hard for some folks to believe–not every member of every group, or any group that isn’t a cult, thinks in the exact same way. We’re people, not preprogrammed automatons. There were people attached to T’Challa, not a namesake and not a duplicate from a parallel universe. (Which is like Wanda stealing versions of her kids from another universe and somehow she was the hero while killing other heroes.) Apparently T’Challa is interchangeable but the actor wasn’t. Well,  T’Challa predates Chadwick Boseman. Replacing the actor has never been seen as an insult unless they got a bad actor taking over or the script/directing sucked. Many times the actor has been replaced, some doing a worse job and others doing a better or just as good job. You’re tossing a good character aside for the actor that the role wasn’t even created for. This isn’t replacing John Wick or Benjamin Sisko. This is finding a replacement actor for a character people want more of. I wouldn’t mind if someone else took over for Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark (not a namesake) and I thought he was perfect as Tony.

Respect the legacy. Respect the mythology you’ve been handed. Respect the character and what he means to fans.

Yes, recast T’Challa!