King Chad: Disney pays tribute to Chadwick Boseman with huge mural

California’s Disneyland honoured late actor Chadwick Boseman at the Downtown Disney District at the Disneyland Resort by unveiling a huge mural of the Black Panther star titled ‘King Chad’.

On Thursday, California’s Disneyland honoured the late actor Chadwick Boseman at Annaheim’s Downtown Disney District by unveiling a huge mural of the Black Panther star titled ‘King Chad’. According to an Instagram post about the mural on Disney’s page, the artwork was designed by writer and concept artist Nikkolas Smith. The artwork displays the Marvel star exchanging a Wakanda salute with a young fan wearing the iconic Black Panther mask. Disney also shared images of the mural on Instagram and according to the caption the artwork with pays a tribute to Chadwick reads the following inscription from the artist, “As a former Disney Imagineer, I had the honour of working on a major children’s hospital initiative and Avengers Campus as my final two assignments. Seeing Chadwick’s heart for people in-person, and later discovering his courageous battle with cancer, I was inspired to create this tribute to honour his life and legacy. To us, he was and will always be T’Challa. Long Live The King.”

 

The artist took to his personal Instagram account and shared, “This one is special. My King Chad tribute is now on a wall on display at Downtown Disney. It is a full-circle moment for me: my final two projects as a Disney Imagineer last summer were working on the Children’s Hospital project and the Avengers Campus.”

 

He added, “To millions of kids, T’Challa was a legend larger than life, and there was no one more worthy to fill those shoes than Chadwick Boseman. I’m so thankful to be able to honour Chadwick’s life and purpose in this way. I am grateful to the Disney family for being so supportive of my journey as an artist.”

The mural shows a child wearing a hospital gown, in remembrance of Chadwick’s visit to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he met children battling long-term illnesses, while he himself was secretly fighting colon cancer. The actor went on to continue filming, keeping his illness a secret, until he succumbed to the disease. On August 28, 2020, Boseman died of the complications of his illness, he was 43.

The artist had previously posted the image on his account in August and written, “He would never let the kids see that he was fighting cancer too... To them, he was and will forever be T’Challa... The King.”

The prints of the mural are available of the artist’s page, who added that a portion of the sales of prints of the mural would go to St. Jude and Children’s Hospital L.A. in honour of Boseman.