We went to see Wakanda Forever (a.k.a. Black Panther II) tonight, and I was impressed by how they handled the death of the main character. Chadwick Boseman, who played T’Challa in the first Black Panther movie and showed up in other MCU movies, passed away in 2020, early in the movie development. As I have read, this required a major rewriting of the story.
I’m sure others will review the movie better than I can. I will say that I very much enjoyed the movie, especially the part where I truly had no clue how it was going to end.
The part I want to comment on is the blending of real life and the movie story. The beginning and the end acknowledged the death of T’Challa and, I believe, Chadwick Boseman himself. If you didn’t know the actor had died, the scenes were well done as part of the story. But knowing that he had died gave them more power.
It felt like there was a blending of reality and fiction in those scenes. Where those involved with the movie, including the actors, showed their grief for Boseman at the same time they acted their grief for T’Challa.
I have seen other shows where actors died and their character also died and some did it well. Wakanda Forever took it to another level.