— Chadwick Boseman (@chadwickboseman) August 29, 2020
F1. Twitter post from Chadwick Boseman’s twitter account announcing his death.
As a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fan, I was devastated to hear about Chadwick Boseman’s passing. Boseman died on August 28th, 2020 at the young age of 43. He had been battling colon cancer since 2016 and finally succumb to the disease.
Chadwick Boseman was born on November 29, 1976 in Anderson, South Carolina. In high school, Boseman discovered his love for acting and directing as he wrote and starred in various plays. He graduated from Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, DC, with a degree in directing. He attended the British American Drama Academy’s Midsummer at Oxford Program at Oxford University in 1998 with the monetary help from Denzel Washington, who later became one of Boseman’s close friends. In 2003, Boseman moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. He had various roles in TV shows and small production of plays, but he eventually got his breakout role in 2013’s 42 where he played the lead character, Jackie Robinson. His other famous roles include James Brown in Get On Up (2014), Thurgood Marshall in Marshal (2017), and his recurring role as King T’Challa in the MCU. He is set to be seen in theaters one last time in December 2020 with the release of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in which he plays Levee.
F2. Boseman as his most famous role, King T’Challa, the Black Panther.
Boseman was diagnosed in 2016 with stage III colon cancer. He kept it a secret and continued to work on films between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. His cancer eventually progressed to stage IV during his fight. Boseman also secretly married his girlfriend of 5 years, Taylor Simone Ledward, earlier in 2020. Boseman died at home with his wife and family.
In 2019, the MCU announced the plans for a ‘Black Panther II’ to be released in 2022. After the news of Boseman’s passing, the MCU announced they were not going to recast an actor as T’Challa. Boseman’s protrayal of the superhero was so memorial that a replacement does not seem like a feasible idea for Marvel.
F3. Boseman visiting terminally ill cancer patients
Boseman left a lasting impression on world. He portrayed countless inspirational black characters throughout his career. He devoted countless hours visiting children suffering from cancer while he himself was secretly suffering with it too. Chadwick Boseman truly was a positive influence on the world as he portrayed heroic characters while fighting for his life. His death was so unexpected and heartbreaking that it left an even darker 2020 in its wake as 2020 takes yet another black icon.
I’m personally not a huge Marvel fan, but even I understood the impact that Chadwick Boseman had on his viewers and the world. SO many people loved him and this really was a sad day for everyone, even if you didn’t know him.
Chadwick Boseman was a genuinely a real life superhero. I remember hearing the news on the night of August 28th, tearing up while thinking that this has to be a joke, there was no way this is real. He was such a genuine, kind, and good person, and this made his passing all the more upsetting. Chadwick made a truly lasting impact on the world.
As someone who was always been a huge fan of Marvel, Chadwick Boseman’s passing honestly did hit pretty hard. I remember hearing the news about it as well and I was just genuinely shocked. He was such an amazing actor and became a huge inspiration to so many young black children. The fact that he did not even mention his cancer diagnosis and continued to act through it and visit those sick kids is amazing. The legacy that he left behind will not be easily forgotten.