"T'Challa has completely been erased" — MCU fans angry at Chadwick Boseman's character not being recast after Blade is removed from 2025 release list

News of Blade getting indefinitely delayed caused an uproar among fans, urging Marvel to recast Chadwick Boseman's character T'Challa in the Black Panther franchise. According to a Deadline report dated October 22, 2024, Blade starring Mahershala Ali won't be released on November 7, 2025, and Disney will release Predator: Badlands instead.

Blade is the reboot of the Wesley Snipes Marvel movie, which was announced in 2019 at San Diego's Comic-Con. However, the production and development of the movie encountered multiple delays with obstacles like industry strikes and the global pandemic.

MCU fans were quick to express their opinions via X, emphasizing the lack of Black talent representation in the MCU with Blade getting postponed and the studio not recasting Chadwick Boseman's character. An X user commented on T'Challa being erased from multiple Marvel endeavors and tweeted:

"T’challa has completely been erased across media, first in X-Men 97 and Now In the new Captain America and Black Panther Video Game, what was meant to “honor” Chadwick Bosmen has been completely hijacked into the minimizing of the most prominent black character in literature."

"the decision to not recast t’challa is erasing black heroes…? are we really acting like the lack of representation for black heroes started “again” with that decision?" an X user mentioned.

"I stopped talking about #RecastTChalla because I truly don’t believe Marvel has any intention of having a prominent Black lead, even non-Blk poc, in the MCU. Not T’Challa, not Storm, not Monica Rambeau, not Blue Marvel, not Jon Stewart, not Riri Williams, nor Sam Wilson. WM only," another X user commented.

MCU fans also expressed discontent over the studio's decision not to recast Chadwick Boseman's character and tweeted:

"-Refused to recast T'Challa -Fired Jonathan Majors after he ran away from milk -Failed to cook up a competent team to make a BLADE film strong black male leads getting shafted in the MCU #nooticing #IKnowWhatYouAre," an X user stated.

"This makes no f*cking sense. Like it's not a hard concept to pull off. They killed T'Challa, axed Kang, and now we get no Blade?? Sam Wilson better be the star in his own movie, I stg," another X user said.

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"It just felt like it was much too soon to recast”— Marvel Studios president comments on recasting T'Challa

After Chadwick Boseman's death in August 2020, MCU fans began to speculate whether the studio will recast his character in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Fans of the movie reportedly launched a campaign on change.org asking for Boseman's character to be recast, which garnered more than 60,000 signatures.

However, T'Challa's character wasn't recast in the movie. In an interview with Empire from September 2022, Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, commented on their decision not to recast Boseman's character in the new installment of the franchise, stating:

“It just felt like it was much too soon to recast. Stan Lee always said that Marvel represents the world outside your window.”

Feige continued:

"And we had talked about how, as extraordinary and fantastical as our characters and stories are, there’s a relatable and human element to everything we do. The world is still processing the loss of Chad. And [director] Ryan [Coogler] poured that into the story.”

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According to publications like The Popverse and Fandomwire, fans have also expressed discontent with news of Blade having the same kind of legacy as Black Panther, given the former's storyline is about a black vampire hunter, while Black Panther was the story of an African monarch who saves and helps the world and his nation of Wakanda.