Wednesday – 18 October 2017
Unless you were under a rock, you know that the trailer for Black Panther dropped Monday.
In case you somehow missed it, take a look.
If you want to take a few more minutes and watch it again, go ahead. I’ll wait.
All done?
Let’s just take a minute here to admit how unbelievably amazing that was, so many levels. “What levels,” you ask? How about:
- This is the blackest thing that Marvel has done since Luke Cage. You think that people flipped over a series about a Black man, set in Harlem? Yeah. Turn that up to “11.” This movie has a nation – arguably the most technologically-advanced nation on the planet – in Africa, run by a Black man who’s not a pusher, pimp, or thug. He’s a king. Let that sink in for a moment.
- I’m actually half-expecting some portions of the population to kick back reactions like we saw to Luke Cage or even NBC Live’s The Wiz, about it being “too black” or “not diverse enough.” My response to that is simply, “Suck it up and deal with it. This is what representation looks like. Welcome aboard.”
- This isn’t a Blaxploitation movie.
- We finally see Wakanda, more than just a scenic hillside vista. See previous statement about African nation. I love the fact that they show what appears to be Birnin Zana, the capital city, as a diverse place with low and high technology, various styles of wardrobe, and multitudes of people.
- We’ve already seen Chadwick Boseman‘s T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War. Now, we get to see a feature-length film with him coming into his own as king, a champion, and a man.
- The Dora Milaje – The King’s personal guard. Oh, by the way: They’re all women. Correction: “They are all highly-trained, bad ass women.” Enough said.
- Angela Bassett as the Queen Mother Ramonda. She was my first choice for Storm, back when they were casting the original X-Men movies. I’m glad to see that someone realized that she was an excellent choice for Ramonda.
- Shuri – T’Challa’s sister… at least, I’m assuming that it’s Shuri he’s greeting, while checking out to versions of the Black Panther garb.
- Michael B. Jordan as Killmonger – I will grant that I’m not very familiar with the character, but I’ve come to appreciate Michael B. Jordan’s acting skills and, from the little we saw in the trailer, I think that he’s going to sink his teeth into the role.
- Ulysses Klaw – I’ve been looking forward to Andy Serkis’ MCU return since Avengers: Age of Ultron. It looks like they are moving him forward towards becoming the “master of sound,” as he’s known in the comic universe. I appreciated that they didn’t try to make him be composed of “living sound,” as he is in the comics. I am curious to see if they explain how/why his are does not appear to be a prosthesis, though.
There are still four months until this movie hits theatres. I’m sure that we’ll see at least one or two more trailers for it before then – my guesses would be one around Christmas and another during the Super Bowl. I hope that they can tease a little more of what’s to come without giving away the whole movie.
What did you think of the trailer?