In 2018, The Black Panther movie broke records. It was the first superhero movie with a black lead that grossed over one billion at the box office. The director, Ryan Coolger became the number-one-grossing black director. At the time of its release, the movie was the highest solo superhero movie ever made! From the script, direction, music, roles, messages, and all of the above, this movie changed the game! So let’s celebrate its victory.
Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther
The Goat. His performance is undefinable. He channeled everything T’Challa was: Caring, brave, smart, respectful, and strong. In every appearance starting from Civil War, we knew that T’Challa was a man to look up to. He was a hero that looked at the good inside of people, and Boseman embodied this role. I, along with the rest of the world will never stop praising his performance as the Black Panther.
The way he spoke, fought, triumphed, the swag! Come on now!
The Message– Killmonger’s Ending
The Black Panther movie opened a lot of different discussions amongst the Black community. Killmonger’s purpose to bring down Wakanada was for the lack of helping out their brothers and sisters from around them. Many viewers saw Killmonger’s points and some may have agreed to some extent. The Black Panther movie created discussion. Who was the real bad guy? It’s marketed as Killmonger, but is he really the villain? Yeah, his methods were a bit out of this world, but with his last words, he said it all:
“Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from ships, because they knew death was better than bondage.”
Killmonger, The Black Panther
This line alone made my own father cry, and I did too. Eric lived in a world filled with racism. When discovering his heritage of Wakanda and realizing that they practiced isolationism while the rest of the world– their brothers and sisters suffered from police brutality, crime, and hunger, it made him grow angry. A little boy was living in Oakland, California all alone, where his father once lived alongside him, and they left him there to rot, to grow in anger at the world– at Wakanda.
And the fact is, his fight with T’Challa made the King change the ways in which he delegated power. That’s a true ending, showing that there was no true enemy except a divide between hate and love.
The Cast
Besides Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan’s performances, we had an onslaught of performances. Here’s the list of badasses on the screen:
Angela Bassett as Queen Ramonda – strong-willed mother.
Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia – brave and independent love interest.
Letitia Wright as Shuri – the smart and funny sister.
Danai Gurira as Okoye – loyal and powerful soldier.
Winston Duke as M’Baku – a courageous outsider who can be in a silly goofy mood.
Forest Whitaker as Zuri – a devoted adviser.
Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu – a treacherous brother.
Martin Freeman as Everett K. Ross – a reliable helper.
Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue – a sadistic killer.
The Movie-Going Experience
I am proud to be a part of the black community. Going to see the movie with my family the day it came out in theaters was a glorious experience. Like stated earlier, at the end of the movie, my father teared up. On one end, we understand why Wakanda would keep everything consolidated considering the treachery behind enslavement and racism, but on the other, Eric Stevens had his reasons for feeling abandoned by his family.
They had all these resources and decided against not helping. This cut deep inside my family and me. It’s an indescribable feeling that will not be able to properly describe, but once you feel like the world, and the people around you are against everything you stand for, you feel like you can burn the whole world down.
Black Panther started trends within superhero movies. There doesn’t have to be a straight-up villain. Villains are not born out of evil– rather, they were created or raised in a way that made them that. Thank you Ryan Coolger, Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and the rest of the cast and crew for creating such an iconic piece of fiction for the big screen.
For more Black Panther-related articles click here!
For more content about Black Superheroes, click here!