Black Panther
A Marvel juggernaut worth the wait
Directed By: Ryan Coogler
Other Notable Films From Coogler: Fruitvale Station, Creed, Sinners
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Angela Bassett, Forest Whittaker
Screenplay By: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
Movie Synopsis: The king of Wakanda must defend his throne against an outsider with an unexpected connection to the small, powerful nation.
Signature Line: “Is this your king?!”
THE INTRODUCTION
An accounting of time, and people, and context
The development history for Black Panther, which stretches back more than a quarter century, features a collection of very interesting names:
There was, for example, a stretch in the early ‘90s when Wesley Snipes was attached to star in it. And a time when John Singleton was in consideration to direct (following the release of Singleton’s brilliant debut film Boyz n the Hood, he’d become not only the first Black director earn a nomination from the Academy, but also the youngest ever to do so). And even a time when Djimon Hounsou’s name had begun being floated around for the lead (Tim Story planned to incorporate him into his proposed Fantastic Four trilogy).
And listen: I think a pre-Blade Wesley Snipes and a post-Boyz n the Hood John Singleton would’ve absolutely made an incredible ‘90s Black Panther together. And I think Djimon Hounsou, a two-time Academy Award Best Supporting Actor nominee and one of the seven most underappreciated actors of his generation, would’ve undoubtedly shined as heir to the throne of Wakanda in a mid-2000s version of the movie.
But as intriguing as those names are—and as intriguing as any combination of any of the names rumored to have been attached to the Black Panther property at any point could’ve been—none would’ve been as perfect as the combination of names we got when Black Panther finally made its way into theaters in 2018.
There was Ryan Coogler, a young but masterly director with a preternatural ability to make the biggest, grandest ideas feel uniquely personal. And Chadwick Boseman, an exceptionally regal actor whose very best traits were precisely the ones required to make the lead character feel less like a cartoon superhero and more like a real person. And Michael B. Jordan, a wildly cool actor capable of stuffing a year’s worth of emotion into a minute’s worth of screentime.
And that’s to say nothing of the movie’s gaggle of Oscar winners and nominees (Angela Bassett! Daniel Kaluuya! Lupita Nyong’o! Forest Whitaker!), charismatic new talents (Letitia Wright! Winston Duke! Danai Gurira!), and familiar favorites (Martin Freeman! Andy Serkis! Sterling K. Brown!).
Other combinations of other names from the past would’ve been great, yes, certainly. But the combination we got—the combination of people who turned a movie about a guy who gets dressed up as a large cat into a cultural touchstone and global phenomenon that generated $1.3 billion at the box office—was all-caps PERFECT.
Of that, there is no doubt either.
THE VIEWING
A timestamped rewatch of Black Panther
1:46: Too Short’s “In The Trunk” is playing right now. You might be tempted to think this is the first time a Too Short song soundtracked a Disney movie, but there’s actually a part in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves when one of the dwarves (Bashful, I believe) listens to “Pimp the Ho” as he tidies up around the cottage.
2:37: Sterling K. Brown is here. He plays N’Jobu, brother of King T’Chaka. Sterling K. Brown rules. He always feels so prestigious, which I assume is why he can successfully go by “Sterling K. Brown” rather than just “Sterling Brown.” You have to be possessed of a certain kind of innate importance for people to include your middle initial when saying your name. Samuel L. Jackson. John C. McGinley. Michael B. Jordan. Mary J. Blige. Those all sound right. Those sound like important, regal people. “Shea M. Serrano” sounds completely ridiculous.
5:47: This is an incredible first six minutes. In it, we get (a) the entire history of Wakanda, (b) our first interaction with the Dora Milaje, the personal security service of the Black Panther, and also (c) the origin story for what will become the central conflict in the movie. Black Panther might rate the highest on the FUCK YES scale of all the Marvel movies.
5:48: P.S. You know how sometimes you’re watching a movie or a TV show, and a thing happens onscreen that makes you go “Okay, fuck yes, I’m in”? That’s what the FUCK YES Scale is: The faster a movie can draw the “Okay, fuck yes, I’m in” response out of you, the better. Black Panther gets there in under six minutes, which is superb.
5:49: P.P.S. An abbreviated history of Wakanda: A long time ago, a meteorite containing a very valuable metal called vibranium crashed into the nation of Wakanda. As five Wakandan tribes warred over ownership of the meteorite, a warrior ingested a special plant that gave him superhuman abilities, turning him into the first Black Panther. After he united all but one of the tribes, Wakandans used vibranium to develop extremely advanced technologies while posing as a developing country to the rest of the world.
5:50: P.P.P.S. And an abbreviated origin story for the movie’s central conflict: Sterling K. Brown’s character is a Wakandan spy who, while out in the world doing his normal duties, became radicalized by all the injustice being perpetrated against Black people around the world. He decided he wanted to figure out a way to use Wakanda’s technology to help, but that idea ran afoul of Wakanda’s standard operating procedure.
Off to the rest of the movie we go…
7:45: Time jump to present day. Chadwick Boseman is here. He plays T’Challa, the reigning prince of Wakanda, who is now taking over as king following the death of his father. Boseman is outstanding in this. He’s a moral pillar who’s not overly righteous—intelligent without ever being arrogant, strong without ever being cartoonish, funny without being unserious, and earnest without feeling self-indulgent. T’Challa is THE defining role of Boseman’s career, which is crazy to think about when you remember his performances in Da 5 Bloods and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the latter of which earned him a Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards in 2021.
8:17: Danai Gurira is here. She plays Okoye, leader of the Dora Milaje. A cool accidental tie-in here is that a year before playing this character (the chief bodyguard of the fictional Black Panther), Gurira portrayed Afeni Shakur, a member of the real-life Black Panther party, in the Tupac biopic All Eyez on Me.
10:15: A thing that’s kind of funny to think about: T’Challa destroys a convoy of rebel soldiers here. But he doesn’t do so to stop them from whatever illegal activities they’re participating in. He does so because his crush (a Wakandan spy named Nakia) was embedded with them and he wants to invite her to his official coronation ceremony. She literally says to him, “Why are you here? You’ve ruined my mission,” to which he’s just like, “Eh, that’s my bad. But hey: My dad’s dead. I’m about to be king. You wanna come watch?”
10:25: Lupita Nyong’o is here. She plays Nakia, the Wakandan spy T’Challa loves. A cool thing about Nyong’o: She was born in Mexico City, which means that technically she’s a Mexican. That means our PRESTIGOUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ACTORS starting lineup is Salma Hayek (Academy Award Best Actress nominee), Demián Bichir (Academy Award Best Actor nominee), Diego Luna (Emmy nominee), Lupita Nyong’o (Academy Award Best Supporting Actress winner), and Danny Trejo (was in a movie where a woman hid a handgun in her vagina).
13:07: Wakanda being an ultra-advanced technological country disguised as a developing one is such a fun idea. I’ve heard of people playing dumb before. I’ve never heard of a country doing it.
14:02: Angela Bassett is here. She plays Ramonda, the queen of Wakanda. The casting for this part probably took all of 30 seconds. Ryan Coogler was brainstorming alone in his office like, “Hmmm, we need someone who feels especially stately. Someone who has an unimpeachable strength. The distinguished queen of a country who wi—” and then 25 casting directors busted through his windows like SWAT team members breaching a building screaming “ANGELA BASSETT! ANGELA BASSETT!”
16:26: Michael B. Jordan is here. He plays Erik Killmonger, a black-ops mercenary who plans to overthrow the Wakandan government and install himself as their new king. Killmonger is a really fun and interesting villain, and so I’m very excited to eventually examine all the pieces of his Bad Guy Philosophy. Right now, though, the only thing that needs to get mentioned are these slutty little glasses he’s wearing. What a hunk.
