This morning a trailer for Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dropped online.
Despite the gushing reviews, I was no fan of the original “Black Panther.” I found it stale, uninvolving and its Hamlet-inspired narrative awfully familiar. You never truly felt engrossed. Regardless, the film garnered a Best Picture nomination and made a billion dollars worldwide. Not to mention, the critics went gaga for it, taking the inclusive-narrative bait and calling the film “groundbreaking” — Which, on-paper, it was. Although people decided to pretend “Blade” never existed.
Plans for a sequel to “Black Panther” dramatically changed in August 2020 when star Chadwick Boseman died. Instead of just calling it a day, the Marvel machine decided to go on with the sequel by rewriting the screenplay. Production on “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” took place in late June 2021. Then came Letitia Wright reportedly expressing anti-vaccine sentiments on the set, this led to backlash.
The show went on, until Wright got injured during a stunt and production had to shut down in November, only to resume again in January. Production on “Wakanda Forever” officially wrapped in March 2022
This sequel has no Boseman, no Michael B. Jordan, no Daniel Kaluuya. However, Coogler is back in the director’s chair. Coogler is a talented filmmaker, but whatever promise he showed in “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed” is being erased by the Disney machine.
“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” clocks in at 161 minutes and will be released on November 11th.
For Schrader, AI solves the curious practical filmmaking problem he had. How about just creating Black people? No casting calls, no agents, no actors turning down the roles.