By: Valerie Gutierrez

On Aug. 28 2020, the world lost the King of Wakanda. Late star Chadwick Boseman died after his four-year long battle with colon cancer. Boseman was known for playing T'Challa, aka Black Panther, in Marvel's movie adaption of "The Black Panther" comics, written and created by the late Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The shocking news of Boseman's passing left many fans saddened, heartbroken and wondering what would happen to the Black Panther character and how it would be handled in the film.

In Aug. 2019 Kevin Feige, president of Marvel studios, announced that Ryan Coogler will be directing the second film of "The Black Panther" series. The original release date was May 6, 2022 but it has been recently pushed back to July 8, 2022. There is little information on what Coogler and Feige plan to do for the second film but it is known that they will not be using a hologram of Boseman or holding auditions for his role.

According to Feige:

"...Chadwick Bosemans performance as the Black Panther is just irreplaceable".

Disney tweeted that Coogler will be focusing on exploring the world of Wakanda and the characters introduced in the first film. Since they will not be having another actor come in and play T'Challa, this leaves them with the options of replacing his leadership role with another charcater.

In the comic books Shuri replaces T'Challa as the new leader of Wakanda. It is after she helps her brother recover from almost being killed by Doctor Doom that she takes his place and becomes the new black panther. This is one of the ways they can replace T'Challa and since Shuri has already fought with the avengers it wouldn't be strange to have her as his replacement.

Another route they can go with is asking Okoye to take over T'Challas place. Okoye is the leader of the Dora Milaje (a team of women who serve as a special force for Wakanda), she is very dedicated to serving her king and country. If Coogler chooses not to go with that route, they also have the option of choosing Michael B. Jordan to come back.

The following contain spoilers from the first "Black Panther", please proceed with caution.

Michael B. Jordan played the villain "Eric Killmonger" in the first "Black Panther" film. In the movie we see T'Challa stab Killmonger in the chest during their final fight and then take him to the edge of a cliff to see all of Wakanda. T'Challa tells Killmonger,

"Maybe we can still heal you", but Killmonger refuses because he knew he would be locked up after.

Killmonger then decides to remove the blade from his chest so he could bleed out but the scene starts to change before he dies and his body is not shown again, leaving fans to speculate if he really did die.

Feige, Coogler and Jordan have not confirmed this rumor but it has also not been denied. Jordan told People Magazine he is more than willing to come back and reprise his role if invited back. So, if Coogler wanted he can have Killmonger replace T'Challa as Wakanda's new leader.

There are probably other ways or routes they could go with but these are just some ideas they could be using or plan to use. Now we have to wait and see what Coogler has in store and whether it will work for the Marvel fandom.

How will Marvel Cinematic Universe replace Black Panther?