TBS has announced that they’ll air Black Panther twice this weekend as a tribute to star Chadwick Boseman, who passed away yesterday at the age of 43 after privately suffering from colon cancer for the past four years. The network will be showing the film on Saturday, August 29th at 9 PM ET/PT and will then screen it again on Sunday at 8 PM ET/PT.
Boseman played Wakandan king T’Challa in four movies from 2016-2019 – Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. The 2018 solo outing for the royal vigilante was more notable than most superhero origin stories as it was the first Marvel movie to have a black lead since the Blade trilogy. Ryan Coogler’s film became one of the most acclaimed entries in the franchise, too, earning itself an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. In fact, it’s fair to say that it stands as one of the most culturally important movies of the past decade.
In the wake of Boseman’s passing, social media has been flooded with grief from fans shocked and heartbroken over the news. Many of his Marvel co-stars have shared their own condolences and tributes to their friend and colleague, while a lot of people have been asking the studio not to recast the actor for Black Panther 2 and instead have either Letitia Wright’s Shuri step up to take the mantle or even rest the project completely.
Black Panther also stars Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett, John Kani and Sterling K. Brown. If you can’t catch either of TBS’ screenings this weekend, it can also be streamed on Disney Plus alongside all of Boseman’s MCU appearances.
Rest in peace, Chadwick Boseman. Wakanda forever.