'What If...?' trailer: Hear Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa - Los Angeles Times
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Marvel’s ‘What If…?’ trailer reveals Chadwick Boseman in final T’Challa performance

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Almost a year after Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer, his T’Challa character will live again when Marvel begins streaming its new, 10-episode Disney+ series “What If…?” on Aug. 11.

Released Thursday, the first official trailer for “What If...?” features Boseman’s voice as T’Challa for the last time. Before his death at age 43, the beloved actor provided a voice-over for the animated TV show as T’Challa, the character he portrayed in the 2018 blockbuster “Black Panther.”

“What If...?” reimagines popular Marvel characters in storylines that actually take place but in different dimensions. Traditional Marvel stories are told in new ways, like Tony Stark being saved by Erik Killmonger in the first “Iron Man.”

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The new trailer reveals that T’Challa will be Star-Lord from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” and work closely with the ravager Yondu.

Long before he was cast as the first black superhero of the modern Marvel era, and before he brought the Avengers-adjacent King T’Challa of Wakanda to life in his own groundbreaking standalone tentpole, Chadwick Boseman was keeping notes on what a “Black Panther” movie should be.

Feb. 8, 2018

“What If...?” is yet another emotional farewell to Boseman and T’Challa; Marvel President Kevin Feige announced last year that the Black Panther character would not be recast in honor of the actor.

Boseman also was memorialized late last year in a “Black Panther” opening scene on Disney + and in the 2020 video game “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales,” which featured an end-credits dedication to Boseman and a street called Boseman Way.

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Earlier this year, Boseman won a Golden Globe for lead actor in a motion picture, drama, for his acclaimed performance as Levee in Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Also nominated for an Academy Award in April, Boseman lost to Anthony Hopkins, who, like many, seemed surprised.

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