The late, great Chadwick Boseman scored his first Emmy nomination on Tuesday. His voice acting work in Disney+ and Marvel Studios’ What If…? scored an Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance nomination. The role marked Boseman’s final appearance in the MCU and although he only appeared in voice actor form, the role really did work as a good reminder of how wonderfully he inhabited T’Challa and what a loss his 2020 death was.
Boseman also scored a posthumous Oscar nomination for his work in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was his final film performance. If you watched the Oscars that year, you might remember the palpable shock when Boseman lost to Anthony Hopkins. Boseman’s widow Taylor Simone Ledward was on hand to accept the Oscar in his place and looked very prepared to do so, while Hopkins himself wasn’t at the ceremony. Fortunately, the famously good-natured Hopkins posted an acceptance from his home country of Wales the following day, and made sure to include a tribute to Boseman, who he said was “taken from us far too early.”
It’s not a given that a great actor can transition to being a great voice actor, but Boseman’s work on What If…? showed that he had what it takes, and good on the Emmys for recognizing it.
