Chadwick Boseman has won a posthumous accolade for his role as T’Challa in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for reprising the role of T’Challa on the Disney+ animated series What If…?. In this multiverse series, this version of T’Challa never became Black Panther. Before he could, he was taken in as a child by Yondu (voiced by Michael Rooker) and became Star-Lord instead of Peter Quill.
Marvel Studios and Disney had bigger plans for Boseman’s T’Challa/Star-Lord in future installments of What If…?, but his untimely death from colon cancer at the age of 43 in 2020 not only halted those plans but forced Marvel to reconfigure their entire Cinematic Universe, particularly the upcoming feature Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
In addition to this Emmy, Chadwick Boseman received posthumous awards for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Boseman’s widow Taylor Simone Ledward attended the Emmys and accepted on his behalf, saying (via The Hollywood Reporter):
“When I learned that Chad was nominated for this award, I started thinking about everything that was going on when he was recording — everything that was going on in the world and in our world and just being in such awe of his commitment and his dedication.
“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.”
The other nominees in this category were F. Murray Abraham (Moon Knight), Julie Andrews (Bridgerton), Maya Rudolph (Big Mouth), Stanley Tucci (Central Park), Jeffrey Wright (also for What If…?), and the late Jessica Walter (Archer). Honestly, had Walter won, it would have been just as deservingly and poignant.
Black Panther became the first superhero movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Many attribute the film’s success to Boseman’s tremendous work on the film. The film’s sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which will address the passing of T’Challa, is slated to be released on November 11, 2022.
