Never miss a thing. Sign up to HuffPost Australia’s weekly newsletter for the latest news, exclusives and guides to achieving the good life.
Photos from Chadwick Boseman’s final film role have now been unveiled.
Last year, Chadwick completed filming on ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, a new Netflix drama co-starring Viola Davis, based on the play of the same name.
In the film, Viola takes on the lead role of influential blues artist Ma Rainey, with Chadwick cast as her trumpeter, Levee.
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Netflix debuted the first photos from the film, showing the cast, including the late ‘Black Panther’ star in character for the first time:
Chadwick died in August at the age of 43, following a private battle with colon cancer.
The late star never disclosed his illness publicly, and had been undergoing treatment during production on his last films, including Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The news of his death shocked the world, with tributes pouring in from former US president Barack Obama and vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as well as stars who knew and worked with Chadwick, including Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett and Michael B Jordan.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is adapted from the play by August Wilson.
Viola Davis previously starred in the big-screen version of another of Wilson’s plays, Fences, which earned the star her first Academy Award.
Her Fences co-star and director Denzel Washington serves as a producer on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, telling the New York Times of Chadwick’s work in the film: “He did a brilliant job, and he’s gone. I still can’t believe it.”
Denzel and Chadwick actually already have a link, with the former paying the fees for the latter to attend an acting course at Oxford more than 20 years ago.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom will debut on Netflix on 18 December.
