I actually think they could go for the idea of “breaking the mold”. Reforms so it’s not necessary trial by combat or being royal blood to be the Black Panther. Which were points somewhat criticized when the movie came out.
But I still think it’d be way too soon for a change and a successor character.
That would be like killing off Captain America and replacing him for Bucky or Falcon (or in the case of Killmonger, for Red Skull) right after The Avengers.
It’s possible Marvel decides this is just an unfortunate twist of fate, and they’re big enough that they can still press on doing business as usual, no matter what the BP plan is from now on. Maybe this doesn’t put them or other studios in “gotta protect my investment” mode.
But to be frank, head honchos at Marvel have to be feeling a little bit burned that they didn’t know. I don’t know how much planning in terms of BP and BP crossovers went down the toilet at this news, and what contingency plans (if any) were in place.
You add Carrie Fischer and that comprises the amount of deaths in the middle of framchises recently. That shit is super rare. Hell before that it was the original dumbledore.
Rarely ever do you get a leading role having its main actor die. If there are, pretty sure they took franchises down with them.
They literally created the comics version of Shuri to take over for T’Challa for a spell and have a female BP. She technically is the most likely replacement but they could also go with the ‘Casper’ Cole route and have some brother find the suit and take the mantle to fight street crime. But I doubt people be ok with that so soon.
Bring Erik back, he was a far more interesting character.
Although saying that, I do like the idea that Magegg pitched a episodic show showing Shuri growing into the leading role otherwise I just can’t buy her as BP