Disney added ABC News’ 20/20 tribute special about Chadwick Boseman, who died on Aug. 28 at 43, to the Disney+ streaming platform. Chadwick Boseman: A Tribute for a King – A Special Edition of 20/20 aired on Aug. 30 after a commercial-free airing of Marvel’s Black Panther, which featured Boseman in his signature role. Boseman died after a four-year battle with colon cancer, a fight he never publicized.
The 41-minute special was hosted by Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts and included interviews with Robert Downey Jr., Forest Whitaker, Phylicia Rashad, Oprah Winfrey, and others who knew and worked with Boseman. The special is available as a special feature for Black Panther. When going to the film’s page on the streaming platform, viewers can find it under the “extras” tab, alongside director Ryan Coogler’s commentary, deleted scenes, and other special features that originally appeared on the film’s DVD and Blu-ray release.
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During her interview in the special, Winfrey praised Boseman for being a superhero both on-screen and in real life. “The way he handled his life and managing cancer with such humility and grace and dignity lets us all know that he truly was a superhero,” Winfrey said. Boseman should be “remembered, cherished, and loved in our hearts, not just for what he was able to offer on film, but what he was able to give as a human being,” Winfrey added. “And it’s not just a loss that we’re feeling. We’re going to feel his absence.”
“Chad was articulating, as only he could, the humanity of Black folks,” author Ta-Nehisi Coates said in the special when putting Black Panther in the context of the protests against police brutality. “That’s what this is all about. You can’t shoot a man in the back unless you believe they are subhuman, or not human at all. What Chad was in the work of doing was communicating Black humanity through Black heroism.… He was peerless in his ability to do it.”
Boseman’s family confirmed his death in a statement on Aug. 28. “A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” his family said, noting that he filmed his most recent movies between “countless surgeries and chemotherapy” treatments. “It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther,” his family said.
In addition to Black Panther, Boseman played Jackie Robinson in 42, James Brown in Get on Up, and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall. His last film released in his lifetime is Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which hit Netflix earlier this year. He died after completing a film adaptation of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which will hit Netflix later this year.
