At the Creative Arts ceremony on Saturday, the late actor Chadwick Boseman was presented with a posthumous Emmy for best character voice-over performance.
The actor from “42” and “Black Panther” went away in August 2020 as a result of colon cancer. He was 43.
Boseman voiced Star-Lord T'Challa in the Disney+ and Marvel Studios animated series “What If…?” in a departure from the recognisable Black Panther role he played in the live-action movies.
Boseman's “What If… T'Challa Became a Star Lord?” episode earned him his first Emmy nomination and win. Taylor Simone Ledward, Boseman's wife, accepted the honour on his behalf.
“And what a beautifully aligned moment it really is that one of the last things he would work on would not only be revisiting a character that was so important to him and his career and to the world, but also that it be an exploration of something new, diving into a new potential future — particularly with everything he spoke about purpose and finding the reason that you are here on the planet on this very time,” Ledward said in her acceptance speech. “You can't understand your purpose unless you're willing to ask, ‘What if,' unless you're willing to say, ‘What if the universe is conspiring in my favor, what if it's me?'”
The “What If…?” series investigates alternative histories for some of Marvel's most well-known characters. Every episode examines what may have happened if significant comic book events had taken a different course with a different character. Bryan Andrews and Marvel's head writer A.C. Bradley produced the first animated series for the studio. In August 2021, the anthology series made its debut.
Boseman received an Academy Award nomination for best actor for his performance in “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” after his death. In 2021, he received a posthumous SAG Award, Golden Globe Award, and Critics' Choice Award for best actor in a motion picture.
“Black Panther” was a pop culture sensation in 2018. The movie made history as both the first superhero movie to be nominated for best picture at the 2019 Academy Awards and the first Marvel movie to feature a Black superhero.
The Black Panther anthology will continue in a sequel from Marvel titled “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” According to Insider's Kirsten Acuna, when Boseman passed away, the adored role of T'Challa won't be recast.
“His interpretation of T'Challa and the Black Panther is legendary and stands above all previous Marvel depictions of the character in other media. And because of that, we won't change the character's appearance “Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, spoke to Insider in a statement.
The eagerly anticipated follow-up premiers in theatres on November 11.
