For those of us already looking ahead to 2018, Black Panther will undoubtedly be the first must-see movie of the year. Marvel has already proven themselves an indispensable brand at the box office, and the Wakandan king’s first solo outing looks nothing short of extraordinary.
With the film studio’s decade of uninterrupted success, there are a growing number of fans looking for something different: something that we haven’t seen before. Iron Man set the new standard for superhero movies and The Avengers reinvented the tentpole franchise. And while Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man: Homecoming have continued to deliver on the promise of the brand, we haven’t seen anything truly revolutionary in years.
2018 looks to change all of that. Regardless of whatever Infinity War gives us, Black Panther will undoubtedly prove to be the fresh look into the MCU that the multitudinous franchise has been aching for since 2012. Not only is it the first franchise to be headed up by a Black hero — or, really, by any kind of racial minority — it is a radically different look into what the MCU, as a setting, really is: focusing on a visually mesmerizing, afro-futurist political thriller.
Almost like a cross between The Winter Soldier and Blade Runner, Black Panther fundamentally feels like a departure from everything that we’ve come to expect from the MCU to date. Instead of “center of the universe” New York City — where apparently everybody’s favorite Avengers gather in their off-time — we are treated to the heart of Africa: to a lost, isolationist nation of profoundly advanced technology and an almost alien aesthetic compared to the trans-Western look of literally every other MCU movie thus far.
It cannot be stressed enough what a radical visual departure Black Panther is from the established franchises of the MCU. It’s more alien than anything in Guardians of the Galaxy and more fantastical than anything promised in Thor: Ragnarok. It’s typically bright and colorful for this mega-franchise, granted, but with an attitudinal edge all its own.
The film’s latest trailer — and presumably its last, given that it opens in less than four months — entreats us to a more substantive look at the film’s plot. Whereas other first-looks into the upcoming film were content with its lush visuals and covert action scenes, we now have a greatest sense with the events surrounding the Black Panther’s return to his home in Wakanda.
Not only does T’Challa have to contend with Ulysses Klaue — last seen being literally disarmed by Ultron in 2015’s Avengers sequel — who has embitteredly returned to the reclusive nation to restock his supplies of invaluable Vibranium, and international pressure from the Joint Counter Terrorism Center’s Everett Ross — last seen with T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War — but also from insurrection from within Wakanda. In the comics, Erik Killmonger (here played by Michael B. Jordan) was an exiled Wakandan mercenary whose ill-fated partnership with Klaue saw him banished from his beloved homeland and instilled with a burning hatred of his former king, T’Challa. Although he clearly retains his Wakandan citizenship during the events of this film, his desire to burn the world to the ground, his golden panther suit and the return of Klaue to Wakanda promise a riff on his comic book origins.
It is immediately clear to anybody paying attention that Black Panther is going to be something special. What Wonder Woman did for women in 2017, Black Panther will potentially do for Black audiences in 2018. It is a visually arresting, action-packed, political thriller that, given the obtuse conservatism of bottom-line-obsessed studio executives are known for, it is amazing we’re being given at all. If these trailers are anything to go off of, this is not a movie to miss in the coming year.
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