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What Does the 'Black Panther' Movie Return To Development Mean?


'Black Panther' Movie Returns To Development With New Screenwriter

The news that Marvel Studios is pushing to develop a Black Panther film is good news. Still, given the complicated nature of the Black Panther as a character, there is a long way to go before we will see a successful Black Panther live action feature. As I have suggested in other venues, having exhausted established characters, producers of superhero films must develop lesser known characters. The Black Panther, the first black (not African American) superhero is a natural choice. At the same time, race and power questions connected to the character will create barriers to success. By his very nature however, T'Challa (the Black Panther's real name) personifies a rejection of western colonialism and calls into question the European legacy in Africa. Any film that is true to character must strike a careful balance of celebrating the African autonomy represented by the character and playing to the tropes associated with U.S. superhero movies.

The choice of Mark Bailey to write the screenplay is significant. He is known for documentaries-- Pandemic: Facing AIDS and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib. This suggests the film might engage the audience through the Black Panther's struggle to protect Wakanda from dangers facing Africa. This could, at once elevate the film, but it could also make it hard for white audiences to engage with the film. For the non-comic fan to embrace the character, they will need a story they can get behind.

Adding to the problem, the Black Panther is wrongly linked to the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (later shorten to the Black Panther Party). The very same Black Panther Party caught in the crosshairs of new Congressional investigation into whether or not the Obama Justice Department failed to pursue a case against them for intimidating white voters. While the Black Panther comic book character is not named after the party, it kinda hard to miss the similarity. How will movie going public react to that link in our supposedly conservative times? At some level, having a African-American president could allow the filmmaker (whomever that maybe) to strike a more positive note in terms of the United State and Africa versus the general charge of imperialism associated with the Bush administration. Yet, that approach would also open the film to a charged political interpretation. Ironically, more than any other Marvel character, the Black Panther has the opportunity to play extremely well overseas. The reason, of course, is because people will associate the comic book character to the leftist political organization!

So will conservative commentators ignore the new Black Panther film in development? Maybe, but they have been pretty critical of recent choice of Muslim French Batman in the pages of Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated series. Marvel should make a live action Black Panther film. I want to see it, but I don't think it will be an easy task.
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