IN MEMORIAM: Chadwick Boseman (1977-2020)

Like many of us, the first impact that Chadwick Boseman made on me in the film world was in 2016, when he stole the show in Captain America: Civil War with his first appearance as T’Challa, the suddenly appointed king of the sovereign nation of Wakanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

I knew very little about the character of Black Panther then, and while I’m hardly an expert on him now, that movie and his appearance definitively ramped up my interest. His presence on screen with his accent, his strength and agility, how he carried himself among the other characters we had spent the last eight years getting to know, specifically Chris Evans’ Captain America and Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man, was unmistakable. He didn’t just fit right in, he took over when he was on screen. 

By the time the movie ended, my girlfriend Shonda and I wanted nothing more than to see Wakanda on screen with him in the lead, and while we had to wait almost two full years for it, it was well worth it. I’ll never forget that first night, seeing Black Panther in a packed IMAX theater filled with two different school groups that were brought there by their teachers, along with older black men and women than had surely never watched a comic book film in their lives before, in full dashikis and proper dress alike, because Black Panther was a movie we all felt like we had to support as black people. Just because of what it signified and what it stood for in terms of black people on screen in a big budget franchise film. 

I saw it three times and each one was just as liberating. Shonda found a fourth time to see it with her friend. The cultural significance was and still is unmistakable. 

Chadwick Boseman understood that importance probably more than any of us, which is why to discover that he was battling Stage 4 colon cancer for the entirety of his MCU career, training and putting his body through the paces to look like a seasoned African warrior king that could rival a super soldier like Captain America, is nothing short of heroic in itself. Add to that the fact that he was in Gods of Egypt, Message from the King, Marshall, 21 Bridges and Da 5 Bloods, in addition to his three MCU films(Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) all the while keeping his cancer diagnosis private, and you realize just how much of a true titan the man was on this earth with respect to his craft. 

I readily admit that the only other film of his I have seen to this point aside from his Marvel work is Draft Day, in which he played Vontae Mack, a fictional linebacker recruit from my real life most hated rival school, Ohio State, that in a span of no more than 20 minutes actually became the focal point, as well as the heart and soul of a crazy little film starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner about the Cleveland Browns handling the Number 1 draft pick. To be honest, as much as I do like that movie, Boseman’s performance is far and away the most genuine in it because he makes you feel the raw emotion of his character as the NFL machine makes decisions around him. 

I need to see 42, Get on Up, Marshall and 21 Bridges, I know that. I just wasn’t anticipating that when I would finally watch his performance in those films, it would be in a posthumous sense. 

There’s nothing fair about Chadwick Boseman’s death whatsoever, and it hits us harder than many others because we never saw it coming. I and others had concerns about his weight in the past few years possibly signifying health concerns, but never thought cancer, let alone a four year battle with it. You have to believe his family was as prepared as they could possibly be for this situation, if they even can be prepared for it, but we certainly were not at all. 

With that in mind, I greatly respect Boseman’s privacy in that sense because it separated him from most other celebrities of his kind. He never complained about his condition, he didn’t seek pity or solace from the outside world, and he continued to work, not just acting, but playing strong roles like former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, or “Stormin’ Norm” Holloway, the major plot device character in Da 5 Bloods. He realized and understood the value of his time on this earth and he made it count better than most of us can say we have at this point in our lives. 

It hurts like hell to know that we’ll never see him play our Wakandan king again, or see what else his career was ready to blossom into with more powerful roles and strong performances he certainly would have provided us, but it is still comforting to know that we have a strong body of work to enjoy that he gave us while he was here. Jackie Robinson, James Brown, King T’Challa, Thurgood Marshall and “Stormin’ Norm” among others are performances that will stand the test of time and serve to support a great legacy that, while it ended far too soon, will last a lifetime just the same. 

Rest, King Chadwick. We know that death is not the end for you, or us. Wakanda Forever.