The show must go on: how to deal with the death of an actor?

Whether it happens on-set or off-set, if an actor dies, this brings a lot of organization in addition to a lot of grief. There is room for grief for the first months after it happened, but at some point hard decisions have to be made. The key question must be asked: is the production and release of this film still a realistic goal and do we want that too?

Chadwick Boseman

Less than three months ago the world was shocked by the death of an actor who was still at the start of his career. An actor who had just played the part of his life in Black Panther and was likely to have another great career, within the hugely popular Marvel universe anyway. Unfortunately we will not see Chadwick Boseman on the silver screen again.

Chadwick died of cancer. Something he knew was going to happen, but that the rest of the world was less aware of. His death was an enormous shock. He had just started. Moreover, there were already more Black Panther films planned, so what next? Obviously, that has not been priority 1 in recent months, but now we are gradually looking at what the impact of Boseman’s disappearance has on the subsequent film. Making a film involves a lot of money and people’s salary.

It is not the first time that an actor has dropped out. For example, the Fast & Furious franchise has certain scenes in which Paul Walker is allegedly shot with his brother. Walker died in a car accident (outside of filming) and by pasting earlier recordings with him on his brother, as it were, he was able to continue his role in the well-known film franchise. His role was written out at the end of the film, but so the car enthusiast still had a very worthy ending within the franchise with which he had become so famous.

Brandon Lee

At Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, it seemed at first that the film would be canceled altogether. Ultimately, it was decided to have Ledger’s character change shape every time. Jude Law, Johnny Depp, and Colin Farrell helped with that, even donating their salary for that movie to Ledger’s daughter. Brandon Lee in The Crow was not cut from the movie after he died on the set of the movie because he was shot with a gun that was loaded. They had enough material to make it into a movie after all. A special example, because of its violence and the death of the actor.

Sometimes a movie really cannot be saved without its star. That happened, for example, with the Marilyn Monroe film Something’s Gotta Give. In the end there was 37 minutes of material, but that was no longer made into a film. It will pass in a documentary. Although it is often decided to allow a film to go ahead, it can also happen that it is really too much work or is simply too emotional to finish the film.

Black Panther

If it is up to Disney, the Black Panther actor will not be brought back to CGI. Disney’s Marvel Studios’ Victoria Alanso has said (via Clarin ): “No, Chadwick is not digitally replicated. There is only one Chadwick Boseman and he is not among us. Our king died in real life, not just fiction. We are taking the time to see how we let the story continue and how we can live up to that painful, horrible thing that happened to us. ” That sounds pretty intense, but doesn’t necessarily mean that his character T’Challa won’t be back.

Filming for Black Panther 2 will start in July 2021. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke and Angela Bassett return, with the character Shuri (Letitia Wright) taking on a more prominent role. She is the super smart sister of T’Challa, who also happens to take over her brother’s duties in the comics. She will have a tough time, because the Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta (Narcos: Mexico) has already been cast as the villain of the play.

We are most curious about how we will see T’Challa again in the future. In any case, it is clear that Chadwick Boseman played an iconic role that he managed to manipulate so well that he is irreplaceable.