The future icon was not an overnight success. He paid his dues for years in the early 2000s, doing guest spots on soap operas like All My Children and TV procedurals such as Law & Order and CSI: NY. He had recurring roles on the 2008-2009 drama Lincoln Heights and the 2010 series Persons Unknown, but it was his performance in 42 as Robinson that made him famous.
Boseman co-starred opposite Harrison Ford‘s grizzled Branch Rickey, general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, in the story of the first major league Black baseball player, and his charisma and soulfulness opened the door to other starring roles in Get On Up and Draft Day.
Then he went from superstar to superhero. In October 2014, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige introduced him as the person who would finally bring Black Panther, the historic first Black superhero, to the big screen.
The announcement occurred with great fanfare at a live event at the El Capitan theater in Hollywood, with Boseman coming onstage with Iron Man’s Robert Downey Jr. and Captain America’s Chris Evans. T’Challa’s first appearance would be alongside as the African prince torn between warring good guys in 2016’s Civil War.
The movie would be a prologue of sorts to 2018’s Black Panther, introducing the Afrofuturist nation and establishing T’Challa as its new ruler following the assassination of his father. Director Ryan Coogler‘s movie was not just a blockbuster—it was a landmark, a breakthrough in representation for Black audiences who too-seldom saw themselves in epic sci-fi storytelling. The movie went on to be the first superhero film to earn a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards.
It also supercharged the Marvel Cinematic Universe, expanding its audience considerably and continuing T’Challa’s journey in Avengers: Infinity War, with Wakanda being the central battleground to protect the entire universe, and Avengers: Endgame, which was T’Challa return triumphantly to defeat the all-powerful warlord who had threatened all existence.
When T’Challa was among those faded away in the tragic ending of Infinity War, many viewers saw that as a sure sign the unhappy ending would be reversed. There was no question that Boseman would return for Black Panther 2. None at all. It was unthinkable.
Boseman’s Black Panther was more than an action movie hero, more than piece of escapism or entertainment. He was a symbol of Black excellence, or strength, intelligence, compassion, and respect. The joy of the Wakanda story was that it was a nation that had never been conquered; it was able to harness its people’s ingenuity and its natural resources of the cosmic element Vibranium to develop a peaceful, futuristic society untouched by colonialism or oppression. It was a better world, led by powerful, noble-hearted rulers. T’Challa was the embodiment of that.
His Black Panther was a hero in real life to countless fans, young and old, who needed to see their own potential represented onscreen. It is still unthinkable that we will not see him in that role again.
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