ET spoke with Chadwick Boseman's widow about honoring the actor's legacy after his death in 2020.
On Sunday, the stars of Black Panther came together for a special screening of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever at the National Museum of African American History and Culture to honor their late friend, Chadwick Boseman.
ET spoke with the late actor's wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, on the red carpet where she reflected on learning to make peace while living with grief two years after his tragic death, and how she and the Wakanda Forever cast created an ode to her husband's legacy and his teachings.
"It all is [a nod to Chadwick]," Simone told ET's Rachel Smith. "Chad very clearly still has a huge impact on people and all we want to do is make sure that that legacy continues and we continue giving back and we continue moving with his ideals and with his beliefs and uplifting the community."
Chadwick died of colon cancer in late 2020, two years after the original Black Panther film was released to critical acclaim. He was 43.
The actor's portrayal of T'Challa, a.k.a the Black Panther, king of the technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda, played a pivotal role in the film's global impact and cultural glory. So much so that after his death, Marvel Studios announced that they wouldn't recast the character or digitally recreate Chadwick's likeness in respect to his memory.
"There’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us. Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking time to see how we continue the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really," Marvel Studios EVP Victoria Alonso said at the time. "Because Chadwick was not only a wonderful human being every day for the five years that we spent together, but it also seems to me that what he did as the character elevated us as a company, and left his mark in history."
The desire to honor Chadwick's legacy transformed the original Wakanda Forever script, which initially centered on the evolution of King T'Challa as a leader, into a film heavily centered on the grieving of Wakanda after the death of their king.
It's a process that Simone is intimately familiar with, as she still wrestles with her own mourning daily.
"Grief is a lifelong battle -- it doesn’t go away, it moves in, it takes a seat [and] its says 'Get used to me,'" she said to ET, sharing that her faith in God has helped her along the process. "And I think you don't really get over anything, you just continue. You just learn how to carry this weight that you're now stuck with. Some days the weight feels heavier and some days it feels a little lighter, and even that lightness feels heavy in and of itself. So, it's complicated."
"But I'm doing my best and the sun rises the next day and we have to keep moving," she added.
Noting that there were "many moments" with her husband that she keeps close to her heart, Simone said that she likes to look back on how Chadwick was a "teacher" to others. "I think being able to really watch him work and watch how he made decisions and how he really thought and meditated and put himself in other people's shoes and tried to look at a situation from every single angle is something that will never be lost on me," she shared.
It's a trait the Ma Rainey's Black Bottom star shared with his close friend and Black Panther director, Ryan Coogler, who worked with co-writer Joe Robert Cole to honor Chadwick's legacy in Wakanda Forever.
"[Ryan] really has such a deep love for Chad and also a deep respect for him," Simone noted. "I feel so blessed that they are the family and the team that continues telling this story, that continue the Black Panther franchise because I don't know that anyone else could do it but Ryan, I really don't."
Reflecting on how Ryan included her in production, Simone shared how the director asked for her thoughts and insights into the sequel and how it incorporated the late actor's presence after his death.
"I struggle to even find the words but I cried when he called me to ask me my thoughts and say, 'How do you feel about this?'" she recalled. "And I think that he really has done a beautiful job of reflecting what the reality of grief is and that it doesn't leave but other things happen in the world and we can't just lay down and stop our work. We really do have to keep moving and he's done that both behind the camera and with what everyone will see."
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will premiere in theaters on Nov. 11, 2022.
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