After T’Challa actor Chadwick Boseman’s passing from colon cancer in 2020, many sang a “how could they?” tune when Marvel vowed to move forward with a sequel.
Meanwhile, those like myself, despite admitted post-Endgame Marvel fatigue, couldn’t have been more impressed with the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever crew’s ability to draw from their own heartache to pull off the half-tribute, half-immersion into new creative waters. The stellar film across the board also inspired me to think outside-the-box when comparing it to earlier works.
Bleaker-lensed movie commenters could point to the Avatar: The Way of Water trailer that played ahead of Wakanda Forever and mock that latter’s inferior demonstration of underwater filming and CGI. But optimists could detect full well what the film aimed to, and successfully accomplished: it perpetuated the oft-reluctantly accepted notion in works of popular media — that the show could go on without the main character.
People say The Office suffered after Steve Carrell left. They say a Fiona-less Shameless was worse than no Shameless at all. They say That ‘70s Show should have hung it up the second Topher Grace got bit by the venom bug. These shows did stay true to the characters that remained, but there was no denying the noteworthy void caused by the departure of actors who chose to move on.
In the Black Panther franchise’s case, Boseman’s passing sent the sequel plans into an obligatory period of hiatus and rewriting. Those he left behind came to accept Boseman would have wanted them to carry on what they built together, considering how culturally important the first film had grown.
“It’s definitely triggering to keep discussing something that’s very close to you and really emotional,” Letitia Wright told Variety. Wright stars in Wakanda Forever as Princess Shuri, sister of the late T’Challa who, like Boseman, died of an ailment he kept hidden from most everyone.
“But at the same time, we understand the ways in which it could bring healing.”
This was not the first time a series that could have gone out on top decided to use its medium to create a dialogue with audiences hurt by either the same loss, or by an even more hyper-relevant one on the homefront. Wakanda Forever, like another Disney product (that celebrated its 20th anniversary this past September), communicates that just because the head of the house is gone does not mean the house is due for immediate foreclosure.
Rather, the departed’s everlasting impact reveals itself in unique ways when the house continues to stand in their absence.
8 SIMPLE RULES
The king of small-screen physical comedy, John Ritter, returned to sitcom powerhouse force in the early 2000s with ABC’s 8 Simple Rules.
Having attained legend status as Jack Tripper on Three’s Company from 1977- 1984, Ritter had audiences of the 2002-debuted offering and his first major series – thanks to after-hours reruns then-aired on “Nick at Nite” – equally rolling. The double-whammy of Ritter delight helped paint a clearer picture for those just being introduced to the Emmy Award winner as to why his contrived “no one dates my daughter!” Paul Hennessy became so instantly iconic. It also explained why said character’s abrupt demise hit as hard as it did.
A hit show after just one season, Ritter had shot three episodes of season 2 before his sudden death on September 11, 2003 after suffering an aortic dissection on-set. He was 54 years old.
After a sabbatical, network execs, show producers and so forth knew the right move was not to bow out– but to write Ritter’s death into the show. No one was more ready to take a leap that required reality-encompassing grief mixed in with a laugh-track sitcom than Ritter’s on-screen wife, Katey Sagal, of Married with Children fame.
Sagal, who said she liked the show but “really liked it when John was there,” told NBC Today, “We, as a cast, we really felt like, if it was going to go ahead, we wanted to tell it as a true story, like a family that lost their dad. And that didn’t feel horrible to us. What would have felt horrible to us was just like, I don’t know, replacing him or brushing it off.”
“John was the center of that show,” she added. “It wasn’t even about the show. It’s really not about the show. It was about losing this incredible person and way too early.”
Needless to say further, the show became something else entirely, and would last for three seasons total. Though cancelled, producing more episodes without the late actor than they did with him helped 8 Simple Rules set a new template. They proved a show could restructure itself by speaking to the audience short of breaking the fourth wall, schooling them on how the story of a family does not quite end when the life of one of their own does.
On a similar thematic note, and in terms of overall landscape, Wakanda Forever seamlessly picks matters back up and closes loops while jettisoning into wholly new territory. It accomplishes all three with a maturity-first policy, much like a sequel to another beloved kids’ franchise— but a continuation that is still shockingly little-seen, despite generating rave reviews upon release.
HEY ARNOLD! THE JUNGLE MOVIE
In 2017, the 90s Nickelodeon staple returned 13 years past its initial run to resolve the wildness that was the South American safari-set disappearance of the titular character’s adventurer parents. For the lowkey, ultra-realistic show that takes place in a cross between Downtown Brooklyn and Anytown, USA, Hey Arnold! was occasionally quite rife with lore akin to Wakanda’s.
As Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie did with animated precision, Wakanda Forever did with live-action and CGI assistance. These two expansive entries peel back layers by saying “ye” to secret city exploration when most others would say “nay.”
By the end of its run, 8 Simple Rules became about the father who passed away and the family who survived despite the magnitude of such a great loss. With Jungle Movie-provided closure, Hey Arnold! became about a boy reunited with his family.
Beautifully so, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is about both. See it at AMC Loews Stony Brook 17, Regal Ronkonkoma, Island 16 Cinema de Lux of Holtsville, Movieland Cinemas of Coram or Sayville Cinemas this Thanksgiving holiday weekend to learn how.
