This year has been about two Marvel successes – Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War – that fans could not get enough of. If January belonged to the muscular intensity of Black Panther, the superhero extravaganza that was Avengers: Infinity War is still being dissected.
However, if you have watched Infinity War (and if you have not, treat this as spoiler warning and stop reading now), you cannot help but feel cheated as T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) turned into dust with the snap of Thanos’ fingers. Why would Marvel kill a superhero they have just established in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
As Huff Post informs us, Nate Moore, a development and production executive at Marvel Studios and a producer on Black Panther, had the same question and tried to hold off the Wakandan king’s murder in the film. The report says Nate learnt a while ago that Infinity War directors Anthony and Joe Russo planned to kill off T’Challa and spoke to them. This was way back in 2015.
‘I knew pretty well what they were talking about and personally urged them to reconsider. But the storytelling made sense, so I love that we got to see a little bit more of Wakanda in that film, and I hope to see how they’re going to resolve that,’ he is quoted as saying.
He added that it was difficult to question the directors’ reasoning, ‘You talk about the pros and cons of each, and they had some really compelling arguments as to why what happened, happened. Again, personally painful, but I understand the reasoning.’
The hope that the dead superheroes may return eventually with the help of Time Stone was also debunked by the directors last month. ‘We have a really strong commitment to very real stakes. … Without stakes, it takes away your level of emotional investment and engagement. We love these characters as much as anybody, but all things have to come to an end. There’s a cycle to everything and these movies represent the end of the first cycle of Marvel Studios,’ they had said.
Meanwhile, Laetitia Wright who plays T’Challa’s sister Shuri was asked in a media interaction if she would want to play Black panther’s role in the coming films. ‘If the opportunity came about, then why not? It would be comic book accurate. Yeah, that would be amazing. It means more training, more learning and it would really be an amazing adventure. Shuri becomes a savage in the comic books. From going to comedic and fun and like a kid – to then just pulling out some claws. I’m excited,’ she told The Toronto Sun.