After the tragic and unexpected death of actor Chadwick Boseman, the future of Marvel’s Black Panther franchise appeared in doubt.
However, according to The Hollywood Reporter, production for Black Panther 2 is slated to begin next summer.
Originally, filming for the sequel to the 2018, $1.3 billion blockbuster about an African superhero was supposed to start in March. Those plans were put on hold after Boseman, who starred as the titular character, King T’Challa, died in August after a four-year battle with colon cancer.
Taping for the forthcoming film is now slated to begin in July.
READ MORE: How do we reconcile Black Panther without our King Chadwick Boseman?
Boseman only disclosed his illness to a small circle of friends and associates. In addition the Black Panther film itself, Boseman portrayed the character in three other Marvel films between 2016 and 2019.
With many in the dark about his condition, everyone attached to the movie went into a period of grieving, with no concrete plans for shooting the sequel.
Ryan Coogler will return as director and co-writer, and cast members Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Winston Duke and Letitia Wright are all expected to come back as well. Shooting will start in Atlanta in and is expected to last six months.
Marvel has yet to comment on how the film will address the death of Boseman. No plans of recasting T’Challa have been announced. The film’s executive producer, Victoria Alonso, stated that a CGI image of T’Challa would not be used to replace Boseman.
READ MORE: Letitia Wright talks playing a British activist in ‘Mangrove’
“There’s only one Chadwick, and he’s not with us,” Alonso said. “Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to the story and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, in reality.”
One theory of the film’s direction is for the expansion of Wright’s role, who plays T’Challa’s sister and tech inventor, Shuri. In the comic book series, from which the film’s source material draws from, Shuri took over the mantle of Black Panther for her brother.
Again, nothing has been confirmed or denied by Marvel or Coogler.
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