MARVEL’S WHAT IF…? IS A FITTING TRIBUTE TO CHADWICK BOSEMAN’S T’CHALLA
[ON-SETREPORT] BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH stars as the Victorian oddball artist with a penchant for pussycats in Will Sharpe’s off-kilter biopic
IT’S BEEN A year since Chadwick Boseman passed away, at the age of 43. It still feels unfair that we can no longer look forward to countless more performances from an actor who was very much at the top of his game, and yet felt like he was just getting started. Thankfully, he left us with a couple of gifts. His tour-de-force performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — for which he scored a posthumous Oscar nod — showcased him at his finest. But with Marvel’s new What If…? series, we get to hear Boseman at his most fun.
The clever conceit of the Disney+ show takes what we’ve come to know and love in the MCU and twists crucial elements in the story, creating new ripples that yield fresh outcomes. Boseman recorded lines for four different versions of T’challa before his untimely death, but it’s the second episode that may resonate the most. Instead of Peter Quill, it sees T’challa become Star-lord after being taken from Wakanda as a boy. He grows up to become an intergalactic hero who inspires others to be the best version of themselves, even taming the Mad Titan Thanos and convincing the former villain to join his team. This speaks to T’challa’s inherent leadership skills, a quality that the MCU would no doubt have exploited in Phase Four and beyond with a new generation of heroes.
Freed from the burden of royal responsibility, it’s a version of the character that gives Boseman the licence to be lighter, looser and funnier, while still maintaining the inner goodness, dignity and earnest heroism that made
T’challa so beloved by so many. It’s emotional to hear Boseman hit all these beats and more in a performance that underlines why he was the perfect, and only, choice to play Wakanda’s King. But by the very nature of the title, this is only a look at what might have been, and not what will be. Though it’s not yet clear how they will deal with his absence in the highly anticipated sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Marvel have no intention of recasting T’challa. What is clear is that Boseman’s portrayal of Wakanda’s King will continue to reverberate in the MCU and beyond for years to come, and What If…? is a fitting and poignant tribute to the huge talent that we lost.
WHERE: Freemasons’ Hall, Covent Garden, London
WHEN: 7 October 2019
WHY: Because Flowers creator Will Sharpe is shooting his feature debut, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, a biopic all about the ABCS — by which we mean: art, Benedict Cumberbatch, and cats.
LOUIS WHO? Wain — the Victorian artist famous for his psychedelic pussycat portraits, anthropomorphising his favourite animal with big, bulging eyes. He suffered from mental health issues that may have been schizophrenia — potentially exacerbated by exposure to parasites found in, er, cat shit.
SO THERE ARE CATS ON SET, RIGHT? Sadly not today. (“There are lots of cats tomorrow,” Sharpe tells a slightly disappointed Empire.) But around the corner are massive clay-moulded cat heads in the style of Wain’s paintings, with matching paws — there’s a ginger cat with a monocle, a tabby with big sad eyes, one smoking a pipe. They’ll be used for an upcoming dream-slashhallucination sequence.
WHAT ABOUT THE HUMANS? Benedict Cumberbatch is here in full Victorian gent regalia. He’s shooting a dinner scene in a grand, marble hall made up to look like a fancy New York restaurant. Wafting incense fills the air. Performing opposite Cumberbatch is Taika Waititi,
in a secret cameo, cranking it up to 11 (see story opposite). “This is the first time Louis’ been in America,” Cumberbatch explains. “It’s overstimulation and noise, an overabundance of everything, which sets his fragile nerves on edge. He’s still deep in his grief, he’s surrounded and burdened by debt, and there are hungry mouths at home who are desperate to be saved by his worth being re-evaluated in America, so it’s a lot of pressure on him.”
HOW’S CUMBERBATCH LOOKING? Dapper. His hair is parted in the centre, he’s got a big twizzly moustache — and a killer black-and-white wool suit. “It’s a bobby dazzler,” he agrees. “This is sort of the ‘electric’ suit; it’s got these
Morse-code blip, tick-a-tick-atick-a patterns there. Electricity is taking over his headspace at the moment. He’s wearing his state of mind.”
IS IT COMFY? Apparently so — though the shoes are proving a problem. “I’ve got weirdshaped feet,” Cumberbatch admits. “These are pointy Italian-looking numbers, which I have to dance in quite soon. I’m slightly dreading it.” What sort of dancing are we talking here? “I can’t reveal that. It’s Louis Wain dancing. There’s not really a category, I don’t know where he’d fit on Strictly — it’s his own thing.” Let’s call it the ‘feline freestyle’.
THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN IS IN CINEMAS IN EARLY 2022