Ever since the announcement, late last year(October, 2014), confirming the rumors that Black Panther, one of the few prominent black superheroes in the Marvel Comics Universe, would indeed be making a big screen appearance, and naming Chadwick Boseman as the actor who would play him, the internet has been abuzz with debate.
Of course this was not the same type of debate that accompanied the first Star Wars trailer for the seventh installment, The Force Awakens, which opened with the appearance of a Black storm trooper. Oh, the horror!
In the case of Black Panther, the initial discussions involved whether or not Chadwick Boseman was the right selection to play the role, as opposed to other more established names. In my opinion many of the choices being offered did not even make sense. Iris Elba; already playing Heimdall in the Thor films. Morris Chestnut; too short. Ernie Hudson; Seriously? Too old for the role, and too out of shape. Denzel Washington; again, seriously? Maybe twenty years ago, but now? Not hardly(Watching him in action roles is embarrassing). Djimon Honsou; actually this one makes sense, as he has the physicality and the built in accent. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje;(most known for playing Adibisi on the HBO series OZ) would have made sense a decade ago, after a nutrition and physical training plan, as he also has the built in accent.
In the end, after all the "what ifs" are said and done, I believe that Chadwick Boseman, makes sense. He has the look and presence to portray an African ruler, the physicality to embody the character, and he has experience in carrying the weight of iconic roles onto the big screen. For those unfamiliar with Chadwick, he portrayed Jackie Robinson in the film '42', as well as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, in the 2014 film 'Get On Up'.
My concern at this point, is not with Chadwick's ability to pull of the role, but rather with the writing and direction, because the writers and directors are the ones that determine the type of Black Panther that makes ii onto the screen for viewers to see. The greatest performance in the world, could easily be edited out, and end up on the proverbial cutting room floor. But performance aside, how powerful will the writers allow the Black hero to be? Will his strength and abilities be on par with Captain America? Or will he be as lame as Anthony Mackie's Falcon?
Many of the Black heroes that we love and hate have been created by white writers, so this issue is not something new. Black Panther was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, back in 1966. I'm not even going to mention the fact that Black Panther was introduced under the moniker "Jungle Action". Oh, wait, I guess I already did. Then, there was Falcon, created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan in 1969. The version of the Falcon introduced in Captain America films, does not have all the abilities of the comic version, which is debatable as to whether or not that is a good thing. And of course, who could forget, Luke Cage, also known as Power Man, created in 1972 by Archie Goodwin and John Romita. As a youngster I thought that Luke Cage was pretty cool, kind of like a Black version of The Hulk. However, once I was a bit older, and understood stereotypes a bit better, he made me cringe.
It is my hope that the writers and director on Captain America: Civil War, will do justice to the Black Panther character, and allow him to shine, along side of all the great heroes of the Marvel Comics Universe. His role and participation in the film will lead the way in setting the stage for his standalone film planned for 2018.
If the Marvel production schedule remains firm, and the Black Panther movie gets made, produced with the same levels of consideration and production value(buget) that we've come to expect from Marvel Studios, they will unlock a huge market of moviegoers in the black community, who to this point have been largely disinterested in the white hero centered comic book film genre, where the black characters are appeasements(tokens) or sidekicks.
For those, who so often refer to Samuel L. Jackson's turns as Nick Fury...sorry, but he is an appeasement too.
Nick Fury is a white character in every other universe, aside from the one that Samuel L. Jackson's agent works in.
