The unexpected death of an actor – especially if they have been in a pivotal role — has altered the course of events in many a film.

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther franchise suffered a body blow in 2020 with the passing of Chadwick Boseman, who had shot to tremendous fame as King T’Challa/Black Panther in the runaway hit and critically acclaimed film in 2018.

Boseman’s last contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) was as the voice of Star-Lord T’Challa in the animated What If…? web series in 2021.

Left without its lead star, Marvel Studios decided to create a new storyline that would incorporate the death of King T’Challa for the final MCU Phase 4 project, instead of casting another actor in the character.

The recently released trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has included a funeral montage — though it’s not clear of whom — in Boseman’s honour.

However, the Black Panther franchise is not the only one to have taken this route to cope with the sudden death of an actor. Some makers also chose to bring back the actors from the dead to honour them in the film. Here are some actors whose deaths have forced the films’ makers to work around the incident in the storyline instead of opting to recast.

Paul Walker in Furious 7

The blue-eyed, blonde-haired action hero Paul Walker was the heartthrob of the Fast & Furious franchise. His passion for fast cars shone through in the films as he played the undercover cop Brian O’Conner with a flourish. Walker starred in all the Fast & Furious films, apart from The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, until his death in 2013. At the time of his death, Furious 7 (which was released in 2015) was still being shot, with Walker’s character playing a pivotal part in it.

Director James Wan hired Peter Jackson’s visual effects house Weta Digital, which had brought characters like Lord of the Rings’ Gollum to the screen. Walker’s brothers Caleb and Cody were hired so that the actor’s face could be superimposed over their bodies. The film did not kill off O’Conner but the makers tweaked the story to retire him from the franchise. The song See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth is used at the end of Furious 7 to create a last-ride scene, in a moving send-off of Walker.

Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

A role that Australian actor Heath Ledger would be remembered for is that of The Joker in The Dark Knight (2008). Ledger brought the maniacal villain to the screen in a way no other actor had. However, the Batman movie was not the actor’s last film. He was in the middle of shooting The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) when his body was discovered at his Manhattan home in January 2008.

Ledger’s death put the movie on hold. Director Terry Gilliam kept Ledger’s Tony Shepard but had actors and friends of the late actor, like Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, essay Tony’s physically transformed versions. Adapting this change allowed the film to retain the scenes that Ledger had shot while letting the other actors fill the spaces left behind by his absence.

Carrie Fisher in The Rise of Skywalker

The Star Wars franchise continues to weave its story web. In 2015, the franchise began its sequel trilogy— The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). The movies saw the return of the beloved character, Princess Leia Organa, after a gap of almost 32 years since Return of the Jedi (1983). Carrie Fisher, who played Princess Leia, passed away at the age of 60 right after shooting The Last Jedi in 2016. This left JJ Abrams in a tough spot, with the last film of the trilogy without the rebellion leader.

Instead of cutting Princess Leia out of the last movie, The Rise of Skywalker, the makers used complex techniques to shoot Fisher’s scenes posthumously. They took the veteran actress’ face and voice from unused scenes of The Force Awakens and digitally created Princess Leia with clothes and hair that were different from the past two movies. Her face and lines were then added to create the completely digitised version of Princess Leia. The script was also written to incorporate the leftover dialogues from The Force Awakens.

Peter Cushing resurrected as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One. Disney+Hotstar

Peter Cushing in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Bringing actors to life digitally has become a staple of the Star Wars franchise, following Fisher’s posthumous appearance in The Rise of Skywalker. Another actor who was brought back to life, instead of being recast, is Peter Cushing. The British actor, known for his menacing role in horror films, played the villainous Imperial commander Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars (1977). Having battled prostate cancer for years, Cushing died at the age of 81 in 1994.

His role as Grand Moff Tarkin, however, did not end with the 1977 Star Wars film. In the 2016 Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we saw the return of the menacing Imperial commander, 22 years since his death. With a combination of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and digitally-repurposed-archive footage from Star Wars, they brought the character back to life.

Don Rickles in Toy Story 4

Another actor who was brought back to life for a role years after his death is Don Rickles. The stand-up comedian and actor lent his unmistakable voice to the character of Mr Potato Head in Toy Story (1995). Rickles voiced the character in the following two Toy Story films that came out in 1999 and 2010.

Rickles passed away at the age of 90 in 2017 and Pixar developed Toy Story 4 after his death. The studio decided to not only have Mr Potato Head in the movie but also to use Rickles’ voice in his honour. Using archival recordings and fitting them into the script, the movie’s beloved character continued to have his iconic voice.

Brandon Lee in The Crow

The death of actor Brandon Lee left filmmakers scrambling to finish a movie that was in the middle of the shoot. The son of legendary action hero Bruce Lee was filming a scene for The Crow in 1993. During the shoot, Brandon was shot with a dummy round that the crew had forgotten to remove from the gun. In close proximity, the dummy round impacted the actor’s body like a real bullet, costing him his life.

With just three more days of the film’s shooting left, the producers decided to not scrap the project. The script was rewritten and Brandon’s stunt double acted as a stand-in, onto whose body the actor’s face was superimposed with CGI.

Brandon’s fate of not being able to finish his last film mirrored that of his father. Bruce Lee had shot over 100 minutes for the film Game of Death before his sudden death in 1973. The film was posthumously shot using body doubles and archived footage instead of having the martial arts legend recast.