We Have Indistinct Hypnotic Powers in Episode 276!

"All I'm trying to say (mostly incoherently in the podcast, mostly coherently here, hopefully) is that having this character that meant a lot to a lot of people die of some unnamed disease off-screen isn't a spectacular tribute to said character. If I were watching these movies with my kids, I would have to dig deep to explain why the sequel featured this happening to the first movie's titular character (from a narrative perspective). Maybe a better Christopher Reeve analogy (and deep down I don't even really think he - or RDJ, or anyone - is irreplicable) would be making a Superman V where Superman was in a horse riding accident and they have to find a different Superman to be Superman as the plot of the movie (I mean no disrespect to him in saying this, it's just the literal equivalent). Obviously I didn't know the guy, but there's no way Chadwick Boseman wanted T'Challa to die of cancer(?) as the conclusion of the character's story. Delaying the movie a couple years to give space for grief, plowing ahead with a new, young actor, then probably Princess Leia-ing Boseman-Panther into Secret Wars and making us all ugly cry would have been my preferred route. On the positive side, I can only say this: as capitalism did, indeed, require this movie to come out sooner rather than later and replacing him surely would have been hard on the cast and crew, the direction they went was the most... human."