Chadwick Boseman Is ‘Black Panther’ On November 3, 2017

Does anyone remember Punisher #60-62?

When they gave Frank Castle pigmentation alteration surgery and made him black? Teamed up with Luke Cage to fight crime in the hood.




Punisher will be on DD season 2, but I don't think they'll do this.

LMAO what were they thinking?

 

Given reports about Marvel business practice i believe it's more like Marvel having a very peculiar vision about the movie and just needing someone to do the daily tasks without fuss.

This of course clashes with the more creative directors who want to bring their own ideas and style and if it's too far out of the Marvel zone they won't allow it (can be good or bad).

Marvel seems like a very strict boss.. you do it their way and have a potential hit movie in your resumee or you don't work for Marvel.

 

It just sounds more like some people mesh with Marvel and some don't. No harm, no foul.

 

I am a little nervous about what Marvel has in store for Black Panther. I don't think they always get him right in the comics and that it might be even worse for the films, since they will likely have a lot of trepidation about a major movie about a black hero that probably is going to be based in Africa.

There's really no precedent for this, and I'm often skeptical of the depiction of black characters in media anyway. It's like a character as strong as the Black Panther, with a country as strong as Wakanda, I don't know if the people feel white and non-black global audiences are ready for that. Maybe even some black movie goers are not ready for it either.

So they'll do something to lessen him. Maybe use a white character, like Everett K. Ross, to be the interpreter, the de facto main character. Or the side character that steals the show. Or perhaps make the villian, likely Klaw, be more dominant than what we've seen with Marvel villains those far, Loki excluded.

Positives, I do like the Black Panther suit. I don't know enough about Boseman to judge whether he's an appropriate pick, but he looks the part to me.

 

Joking aside, I think this is the reason most directors split with Marvel too. They have a formula that works and expect all directors to tow the line exactly the way Marvel wants. Which clashes with directors who are normally independent with their visions for films. Tallying up all the people who have left Marvel over creative differences:

Jon Favreau after IM2
Edgar Wright over Ant-Man
Patty Jenkins the original director for Thor 2 and now the director for WW.
Edward Norton after The Incredible Hulk.
Mickey Rourke has stated his displeasure working with Marvel.
Hugo Weaving also alledgedly was dissatisfied with Marvel.
Joss Whedon, recently after Avengers 2.
and now Alan Taylor, director of Thor 2, is saying he didn't enjoy working with Marvel.


It seems the only people who like the way Marvel does things, are the Russo brothers.



With DuVernay, I'm curious about the details. Unlike most Marvel characters, T'Challa is not just a superhero, but also a King of a fictional African country. How Marvel plans on portraying T'Challa and Wakanda, would probably lead to some butting heads. The same way portraying the Asgardians led to butting heads on Thor TDW.

 

I don't know what is his greatest story, but one I recommend:

Who is the Black Panther?: I thought this was a good introduction to the character. I can't remember if it's the first Black Panther book I read but it was one of the earliest. It read like a movie and had some good artwork. The Black Panther animated film was based on this story.

For Panther writers, I recommend Christopher Priest, Reginald Hudlin, and maybe David Liss. I'm torn over Jonathan Maberry. During his run he focused mainly on a new Black Panther, which wasn't bad in his "Power" arc, but ran off the rails in "Doomwar", which pretty much punked out T'Challa to Dr. Doom. Liss (Man without Fear/Most Dangerous Man Alive) followed Maberry and had to work from a jacked up premise, T'Challa as guardian of Hell's Kitchen. However his work wasn't too bad. It was just the premise was stupid. Before his run ended though I thought he was getting things back on track.

With Priest he wrote a pretty good Panther, however his writing style might not be the easiest for casual fans to get into. Plus he used a white character Everett K. Ross as the point of view character initially to apparently make the white reading audience more amenable to Panther. I wanted Panther to tell his own story. To be fair to Priest he eventually did get to that, and I enjoyed his run for the most part.

With Hudlin, he was more of a lightning rod among fandom. I liked that he made Panther the central character in his own story from jump. He also married Black Panther and Storm, which I really enjoyed and supported, while others didn't. Hudlin brought a racial consciousness, even more so than Priest, to the character and I think that rubbed some readers wrong. Hudlin wasn't without faults, but I think he loved the character and that came through.

With Maberry the deconstruction of T'Challa, began by Hudlin on his way out, went into full swing, with the rise of a new Black Panther and as I said reaching perhaps a climax in "Doomwar". I enjoyed Maberry's "Power" arc though.

T'Challa/Black Panther hasn't really been the same since then. I've only read some of Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers/Illuminati run with Black Panther. So far I haven't been too impressed. I had had higher hopes for Hickman's take on the character after I think I had read his take on T'Challa in a Fantastic Four book.

 

Please do not asume that movie goers are all racist, inbred hicks who reject a movie because it shows the main black actor in a positive light and that dares to have his origin outside the US.

If it's a good story and Boseman plays him well i don't see any reason why the won't do well at the box office.

Given the price tags nowadays for even modest movies (let alone summer blockbusters) Hollywood usually plays it very safe and tries to remove anything they think the audience might not accept or will not be interested in watching.
Case in point the upcoming Akira movie.. most (if not the entire cast) will be caucasian which would be strange for a movie that has its origin in Japan but Hollywood believes no one will watch it if they only cast japanese actors (hell.. Last Samurai had to have a caucasian lead actor - Tom Cruise - for a story that in history was purely japanese).

With Black Panther they don't really have a choice.. the background for the character is strict and fanboys would be in an uproar if they suddenly made him "just" the CEO of Wakanda Industries or somesuch lame rewrite.

So i'm confident that they will do the background justice (hell, they introduced Klaw and Wakanda in Avengers 2 so no lame ass rewrite possible).

Now if Marvel would make a kickass movie with a female lead that would be the cherry on top.. people are calling for a Black Widow movie for years now, let the guys play second row for a while now.

 

Well there is a good thing about that came from the Spider-Man deal. Black Panther was initially slated to open up on November 3rd, 2017. One week before Justice League Part 1. Now it's dated for July 3rd, 2018. Thor Ragnarok has BP's old spot. Which I think is better for it. Thor can compete.

 

If you look at history there isn't a film like Black Panther and I don't think films in general about Africa, that don't have white leads, sell well in Hollywood or with audiences. The white savior idea still goes over big. Also none of the movie companies have done much to promote black superheroes since Hancock, which wasn't based on a comic, so it's new territory. I don't think there has been a great track record of non-white audiences supporting films with majority black casts. There is some support of films with black leads, like Denzel and Will Smith, but that's pretty much a handful. And even less with black female leads. I can think of Columbiana, but how much of a success was that? At least enough to possibly be getting a sequel, but who knows if Zoe Saldana is coming back for that or if they will go in another direction.

There hasn't been a great history of black superheroes in cinema. You can count on one hand the comic book properties turned into films (Blade, Steel, Black Panther). There have been just as many made up black superheroes (Hancock, Meteor Man, Blank Man). A lot of comic properties that haven't been utilized. So I don't know how the audience will react or how Marvel will mold the Black Panther film based on whatever those reservations or perceived reservations to black superheroes there might be.

So far I think Marvel is taking a cautious and perhaps smart approach, introducing aspects of Panther's history in Avengers 2 and having him in Captain America 3. It can be a way of introducing him, of making the concept and character seem more palatable and better known before he is in his own movie.

As for female superheroes, Marvel is moving forward with Captain Marvel. DC is doing Wonder Woman. On the small screen there is Agent Carter and Jessica Jones. DC will have Supergirl. DC is at least giving us a Vixen cartoon and who knows she might even make it to live-action. Generally though black female superheroes really don't get much attention. If the general audience doesn't know much about black male superheroes they probably are really at a loss when it comes to black females. Most probably know Storm though and that's probably about it.

As for black male superheroes the future is a bit brighter as well with Luke Cage on Netflix and Cyborg for DC. We might even get John Stewart in a Green Lantern movie. But even with those, none of those characters has the scope, in-universe history, or grandeur of Black Panther. Green Lantern with the cosmic tableau might come close. Marvel is definitely moving into new territory and I hope they do the character justice.

 

Yeah despite Feige claiming that these up and coming directors each bring their own style to the movies.


We'll never get a documentary style or tarantino style marvel movie. It just wouldn't fit Marvel Studios agenda/big picture

How could I forget Nick Fury?!

 

Now that you mention Denzel Washington and Will Smith it's evident that black leads can work.. it just needs a good story or good charisma (or both) to make them movie stars and then people will not care about the skin color (apart from the few racists of course).

As i said.. Hollywood is very hesitant and cautious about experiments, this is why we get so many sequels of hit movies because Hollywood figures these as safe bets (doesn't matter that the sequels are usually worse movies but if they make a profit the studios won't care).

The few black A listers got there through good performances and good movies but they started small and worked their way up like everybody else so to me that proves that the general audience doesn't care about skin color but it has not yet entered into general Hollywood business practice.

It's a long road ahead and Black Panther might be a further step towards it.

 

Unused Wakanda Mine models from Age of Ultron. Gives you an idea of what Wakanda might look like. Not so Tommorland but advanced in a fashion.





http://mcuexchange.com/unused-set-designs-from-avengers-age-of-ultron-show-off-the-wakandan-mines/

 

Actually Denzel and Will Smith's success doesn't necessarily prove that. Because you see new white stars that are produced all the time but how many black stars that are getting that kind of push? I think Denzel and Will Smith could wind up being tokens or the handy examples to pull out to say "see there's no problem".

I also disagree that everyone starts small and works their way up. I think some people do, but I wouldn't assume that that happens for all. And I do think that Hollywood gets in there and promotes certain people. Sometimes these are people of color (Zoe Saldana), but often they are not.

I think general audiences do care about skin color. It might not be a conscious thing, perhaps subconscious for some, but I think it is reflected in how much non-black support films with black cast get for example. Or in the excuses made that black films aren't 'profitable' overseas. Certain black actors have 'transcended' race to be safe enough for whites or non-blacks to accept like Denzel and Will Smith. But we still have an issue with the depiction of black characters, especially those rooted in a history or culture that isn't white, and also the idea of black-black/intraracial relationships seem to turn general audiences off. So I see a lot of these as problematic for Black Panther.

They might have to divorce him from his roots and perhaps give him a non-black or racially ambiguous love interest, if they touch on any love interest at all. Because I do think there is a problem with depicting healthy black or intraracial sexual relationships in the mainstream. And to me there is precedent for this in the comics, where they took T'Challa out of Wakanda and put him in Hell's Kitchen with a largely non-black supporting cast, reduced Storm's role until eventually they annulled the marriage in AvX. I don't know if he's had a relationship since that point in Hickman's New Avengers.

 

I've gotten the impression that Marvel takes a much more hands on almost TV kind of approach to their movies, and some directors are coming in expecting a lot more freedom.
It seems that the people who cooperate and give them what they are looking for don't have any problems, while the people coming in wanting to do their own thing are the ones who don't work out.

As for Black Panther, my only familiarity with him is from Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and the Ultimate Avengers 2 movie. I liked him a lot in EMH, and don't really remember UA2. There is a lot of potential for a great movie.

 

^Are you talking about the 2016 Fantastic Four movie or the previous series? Because it could be explained that Sue was adapted by Johnny's father in the upcoming current one.