Emotional Rogan Reacts To Loss Of Boseman

Hollywood said goodbye to one of its top leading men last Friday, as “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman lost his four-year battle with colon cancer. The actor, who also portrayed Jackie Robinson in the biopic “42,” was just 43 years old.

Longtime UFC color commentator Joe Rogan struggled to compose himself when talking about Boseman’s death during his appearance on the debut episode of “Unlocking the Cage with Jimmy Smith” last Monday on SiriusXM.

“When you see a person who was inspirational for so many … that movie meant so much to people,” Rogan said. “It meant more to people than just a superhero movie because it was really the first all-black cast superhero movie. There’s such a disparity in terms of black superhero movies versus … there’s so many white superhero movies. That movie was a spectacular box-office success.”

Black Panther grossed a staggering $700,059,566 domestically and another $646,853,595 internationally for a global haul of $1,346,913,161. The domestic take was good enough for No. 4 on the all-time box office chart, just behind the 2009 blockbuster “Avatar.”

“As a human being outside of the movie, to be this guy who embodies what you would want from a movie star and a guy in a position of prominence and a guy who has a voice, to see him die at 43 of cancer, none of us had any idea,” Rogan continued. “It speaks to his character that he would suffer in silence like that. He didn’t make a big deal out of trying to get through cancer.”

No word yet on the future of the sequel, Black Panther 2.