A recent article published over at The Hollywood Reporter has detailed the late Chadwick Boseman’s quiet battle against late stage colon cancer while he continued to film a number of movies and engage in various press tours.
Related: Black Panther’s Letitia Wright Share’s Emotionally Powerful Eulogy For Chadwick Boseman
The article interviews confidants of Boseman in the professional industry, whom he trusted with information about his debilitating health.
Boseman discussed his struggles with only four people: His producing partner Logan Coles, agent Michael Green, 42 Director Brian Helgeland, and personal trainer Addison Henderson.
In the article, it is revealed that Boseman’s desire to keep his condition secret was partly because of his mother’s influence, as Green recalled how she “always taught him not to have people fuss over him”, and partly because Boseman “felt in this business that people trip out about things, and he was a very, very private person.”
Green also recalled how, during the filming of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Boseman “was really in hard-core pain [but] felt that being able to be with [co-star] Denzel [Washington] and to launch this cycle of [playwright] August Wilson at Netflix was so exciting to him.”
The Hope for Recovery
On September 2nd, an unnamed source spoke with THR regarding Boseman’s future plans and divulged that the late actor “was convinced until about a week before his death that he was going to beat cancer and would be able to gain the weight back for a Black Panther sequel that was scheduled to go into production in March.”
The source also notes that Boseman was set to begin production on a new film in September.
Henderson also revealed that Boseman “was just living his artistic life to the fullest and using his time and his moment to really affect people.”
“For us, it was just like, ‘Let’s keep going, let’s keep doing what you want to do, let’s keep training.’” Henderson continued. “Chad had so much wisdom, so much knowledge, so much inside of him that he wasn’t going to let this disease stop him from telling these amazing stories and showing his art in the prime of his life.”
A Future to Think About
Boseman’s untimely passing has sparked a number of discussions online about how the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly the Black Panther franchise, will move forward without him.
Though there has been some initial backlash to the obvious lack of decorum shown by some outlets in discussing Black Panther days after the news of Boseman’s passing hit and many were still in mourning, a conversation will eventually have to take place concerning how to best honor the late actor and the contributions that Black Panther made to communities around the globe.
Though, honestly, it seems like there might not be a perfect solution that hits on all of those points.
The Black Panther sequel slated for 2022 has not moved from that date.