- Chadwick Boseman posthumously won the Emmy for outstanding character voice-over performance on Saturday.
- Boseman, who portrayed the Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, died in August 2020.
On Saturday, the late actor Chadwick Boseman received a posthumous Emmy for outstanding character voice-over performance at the Creative Arts ceremony.
The "Black Panther" and "42" actor passed away in August 2020 from colon cancer. He was 43.
In the animated series "What If...?" from Disney+ and Marvel Studios, Boseman voiced Star-Lord T'Challa, a twist on the iconic Black Panther character that he played in the live-action films.
Boseman won for an episode titled "What If… T'Challa Became a Star Lord?" which marked his first Emmy win and nomination. Boseman's wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepted the award on his behalf.
"And what a beautifully aligned moment it really is that one of the last things he would work on would not only be revisiting a character that was so important to him and his career and to the world, but also that it be an exploration of something new, diving into a new potential future — particularly with everything he spoke about purpose and finding the reason that you are here on the planet on this very time," Ledward said in her acceptance speech. "You can't understand your purpose unless you're willing to ask, 'What if,' unless you're willing to say, 'What if the universe is conspiring in my favor, what if it's me?'"
The "What If…?" series explores alternate timelines for Marvel's most popular characters. Each episode takes a new character and considers what would happen if major events in the comics occurred differently. The show is Marvel's first animated series, created by head writer A.C. Bradley and directed by Bryan Andrews. The anthology series premiered in August 2021.
After his passing, Boseman was nominated for best actor at the Academy Awards for his work in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." He posthumously won the best actor award for the film at the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and the Critics' Choice Awards in 2021.
2018's "Black Panther" was a pop culture phenomenon. The film was the first Marvel movie to star a Black superhero and the first superhero film to be nominated for best picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.
Marvel is slated to release a sequel titled, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," which continues the Black Panther anthology. Insider's Kirsten Acuna reported that the beloved character T'Challa will not be recast following Boseman's death.
"His portrayal of T'Challa [and] the Black Panther is iconic and transcends any iteration of the character in any other medium from Marvel's past. And it is for that reason that we will not recast the character," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said in a statement to Insider.
The highly-anticipated sequel opens in theaters on November 11.