The Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to make some major changes. After eight years and 13 films, the world The Avengers is going to expand and include more of a variety of characters and adventures. Both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther will prominently feature characters and behind the scenes people of color, and Captain Marvel and Ant-Man and The Wasp will be the first entries to feature a female superhero in the leading role. This represents a positive step in regards to equal representation in the media, and Black Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman, has elaborated on the influence that movies like Black Panther may have on Hollywood as a whole.
Chadwick Boseman recently sat down with CBR, where he discussed what to expect in 2018's Black Panther. When asked if he feels about participating in a blockbuster which features a black cast, writers, and director he said he following:
I feel the energy. The image itself opens people's minds up. You can talk about it all you want, you can have it in a comic book, you can even do an animated series, but when you see real people doing it, it changes something inside of you. It's going to be a big deal because there's not just Black people or people of African descent that want to see it, I think everybody wants to see it. That's the beautiful thing. I truly believe there are more people who want to see it than don't want to see it, especially after being here.
I love it. After the past year we've had in Hollywood, hopefully production on Black Panther is a sign of many good things to come in the future.
Big budget movies are a very tricky thing. While serialized storytelling has changed the face of cinema and there are some truly outstanding movies in the superhero genre, they're largely produced in order to make buckets of money. As such, the creative process if affected by how the studio believe they can earn the most through each film's production. Iron Man 3 was originally going to feature a female villain, but this was changed out of fear that a female baddie would sell less toys. It was also believed for quite some time that diverse casts would detract from ticket sales overseas, leading to a fair amount of discrimination and white washing in blockbusters.
This method of film producing was challenged in the wake of this year's Academy Awards; many people were outraged that the individual acting nominations were given exclusively to white performers. Since then, the subject of diversity and representation has been especially present, so Black Panther may just make positive waves in the world of Hollywood.
Black Panther will star Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, and Danai Gurira. It was written by Joe Robert Cole and Ryan Coogler, and Coogler will also be directing.
Black Panther will claw its way into theaters on February 16, 2018.
