“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which opens in movie theaters nationwide this weekend. What’s the verdict from a Marvel super-fan?
In 2018, “Black Panther” became a global phenomenon, dominating the box office and becoming the first Marvel movie ever nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
“It’s culturally significant because throughout cinema and certainly the superhero genre, Black roles are generally supporting characters,” said Rob Woodfork, WTOP sports reporter and resident Marvel Cinematic Universe expert. “To see Black excellence, Wakanda is this utopia that is so far advanced, to see that mesh between technology and tradition, to see a predominantly Black nation thriving — it has significance.”
Fans of the movie were saddened when lead actor Chadwick Boseman suddenly died in 2020 at 43 after quietly battling colon cancer for years without the public knowing.
“I didn’t want to believe it at first; we didn’t even know he was sick,” Woodfork said. “(My friend) was of the mind, ‘Let’s recast the role’ … but I was like, ‘That story was going to come to a close at some point.’ If you know the source material, the comic arc, the Black Panther mantle gets passed down. Did they do it a movie before they planned? Probably.”
Indeed, grief is a major theme in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which opens in movie theaters nationwide this weekend as fans turn out to both pay their respects to the late King T’Challa and be entertained by a new chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“(Director) Ryan Coogler said that loss was always going to be at the center of this movie, even if we still had Chadwick Boseman and the T’Challa character,” said Woodfork.
