How do you tell your child that this favorite superhero has died? That’s what scores of parents are struggling with in the aftermath of untimely death on Friday (August 28) of Chadwick Boseman, known to a generation of children as the Black Panther, from cancer.

Boseman’s character, T’Challa, the king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, is the first Black comic book superhero that Black children had ever seen on Hollywood’s big screen.

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Some parents told the The Washington Post that they see a way to ease into the topic. They’re thinking about using the scene from the film about the ancestral plane, where T’Challa meets with his ancestors, to gently talk about it with their young children.
“We’re going to honor Chadwick’s memory by having a movie marathon of his films. I want him to just remain blissfully ignorant and preserve his youth for a little while longer,” Imani Cheers, whose son Isaiah, 6, loves Black Panther, told The Post. “Even if that’s only for one more day.”
Kyle Cox also is trying to figure a way to tell his son Lucas, 3, about Boseman’s death.

“Every time he sees Chadwick on TV or in a movie, he points and says ‘Challa,’ " he told The Post. “My wife and I have not decided yet if we are going to tell him. He wants to be like T’Challa when he grows up, a Black king. I don’t know if I want to tell him his hero died. That might crush him. He’s still trying to get used to the pandemic and not seeing his friends anymore.”

Parents took to Twitter to give their perspectives on breaking the news to their kids.