Marvel Studios and Disney
This is the movie poster for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, which opens in theaters on November 11.
The release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is approaching, and Marvel Studios has revealed more information about the movie’s plot, but some of the details should catch some people’s attention.
While the sequel’s production is notoriously troublesome, many of the problems it looks likely to face could have been easily avoided.
Focuses on much of the film’s marketing, Atlantis’ MCU debut, and classic comic book character King Namor.
Atlantis, depicted as a typical monarchical alien culture in the source material, has been reimagined as an underwater Aztec empire.
That’s not to say how the depiction of Atlantis characters (mainly Namor) will end up on a very good line of controversy when applied to a modern context.
For better or worse, social media is always finding ways to get pissed off by “hot new things.” Few things are more real than a comic book adaptation.
Namor has been around for a long time and has a huge fan base.
At the heart of the character’s appeal to many is that he can be a little unlikable, and that’s all the more so with his frequent early appearances as a villain.
One problem with adjusting this aspect of his character now, however, is that the vocal part of the online discourse likes to claim that those character traits exhibited by members of certain races in the story should be seen as broad statements about the race in question.
Considering the fact that Namor is often described as arrogant and proud, and the fact that “Wakanda Forever” hasn’t featured potential villains other than Aztec-like Atlanteans, it’s easy to see that Marvel is about to step into into the minefield.
Does it have to be this way?
Aside from dodging the Aquaman comparison, the logical reason behind this decision was to diversify the Marvel Universe, but even that interpretation proved to be abhorrent.
By taking a pre-existing material and diversifying it without considering how it affects everything else, “Wakanda Forever” throws a wrench in a work that wasn’t there before, and as a result complicates the whole thing.
That doesn’t even mention the huge hole in the story left by the death of actor Chadwick Boseman, or the fact that neither side of the ad conflict seems to have particular moral integrity.
It remains to be seen how this all plays out on the big screen and on Twitter, but all signs point to the whole thing being a mess.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opens in theaters on November 11.
