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Wakanda Forever Ivan Allen College faculty explore Afrofuturism and feminism in Black Panther sequel

When Black Panther: Wakanda Forever drops on Nov. 11, moviegoers will encounter a much different story than the first film from the Marvel franchise. Director Ryan Coogler faced a herculean task of reimagining the second installment of the Black Panther series after the passing of actor Chadwick Boseman in 2020.

Among other changes, the film places powerful women squarely at the heart of the film and gives Wakanda, the fictional African nation in which it is set, a bigger starring role — highlighting the film franchise’s strong roots in a movement called Afrofuturism, according to Susana Morris and Lisa Yaszek, colleagues in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and two of the world’s leading scholars on Afrofuturism.

“Afrofuturism is a cultural movement. It's a type of criticism. It is an aesthetic, and it's an epistemology. It's all these things,” says Morris, associate professor of Literature, Media and Communication. “What I like to say is that Afrofuturism posits that Black cultural practices and actual black people not only exist in the future but are paramount to the existence of humanity.”

Afrofuturism Envisions a Future of Black Promise and Progress

Afrofuturism is a term coined in the 1990s by cultural critic Mark Dery. But the concept dates back to the 19th century with African American authors such as Phyllis Wheatley and Martin R. Delany.

Afrofuturism rests on the dual ideas of moving toward the future while remembering the past and is often rooted in science fiction and fantasy themes. Black authors, musicians, and artists throughout the 20th century created works that explored their place in a post-slavery society still grappling with the effects of white supremacy.

"Afrofuturism is this large umbrella that describes the ways in which Black people and Black diasporic cultural practices will continue to exist in the future, and it also looks back." - Susana Morris, associate professor of Literature, Media, and Communication

Race, gender, culture, and history meld with themes of science, technology, and surrealism to produce new worlds or alternate histories where Black people live, thrive and face a different set of circumstances.

“I oftentimes argue that our ancestors imagined there would exist a future where their descendants would be free, even though they could not see their way clearly,” Morris says. “Anywhere where folks have experienced chattel slavery, and those who were abolitionists were like, 'I may not get there, I may not be able to enjoy that kind of promised land, but my descendants will. So, I'm going to move forward every day, whether it's through simply surviving, whether it's through all the everyday acts of rebellion that people did, breaking tools, running away'… I think Afrofuturism has some of those roots.”

Actor Winston Duke reprises his role as Lord M'Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe. Photo courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

The jazz improvisation of Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, the female-driven fantasy stories of Octavia Butler, and the intergalactic, Afrocentric sounds of Parliament Funkadelic and Sun-Ra were some of Afrofuturism’s predecessors.

But Morris points to current musical artists such as Outkast, Missy Elliot, Rihanna, Janelle Monae, and Beyonce who’ve experimented with Afrofuturist themes. Acclaimed author N.K. Jemisin has been heralded for her science fiction and fantasy works, including her Broken Earth series, which made her the first author to be a three-time Hugo Award winner for best novel.

Afrofuturism Runs Deep in Black Panther

The Black Panther series finds itself squarely among this latest wave of Afrofuturism.

Coogler captured the beauty and mystique of Wakanda, incorporating elaborate set design to showcase Wakanda’s landscape.

More than the first film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will pull back the curtain, revealing more of the kingdom’s Afrofuturistic roots in a story driven by the death of film’s hero, T’Challa, and the threat posed to Wakanda by would-be invaders.

Veteran costume designer Ruth E. Carter designed the apparel worn by the royal family and citizens and warriors of Wakanda referencing various African tribes including the Maasai and Dinka people. It earned her an Academy Award for Best Costume Design, making her the first African American to do so.

Elements of Afrofuturism, including costume and set design, are depicted throughout the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Photos courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

Shifting between 1990s Oakland and current-day Wakanda provided a vehicle to connect urban Black America with the mythical African nation. And Michael B. Jordan’s character, Killmonger, acknowledged the past and his ancestors’ plight in a pivotal scene where he tells T’Challa to, “Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors that jumped from the ships because they knew death was better than bondage."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever looks to build on those Afrofuturstic themes presented in the first film, offering a greater glimpse into the inner workings of Wakanda. At the same time, the sequel deviates from the original to account for the death of Boseman, who portrayed T’Challa.

Who Runs Wakanda? Girls!

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever also centers female mourning, strength, power and perseverance in a way that will make the film stand on its own within the Marvel universe, said Yaszek, Regents’ Professor of Science Fiction Studies.

Unlike the first film, this iteration places the female characters as protagonists in the storyline, navigating grief and loss while exuding power and dominance in the face of peril. It’s a unique story arc for the film, but it’s not unfamiliar to the comic series, said Yaszek, who is the author or editor of several essays and books on Afrofuturism, including Literary Afrofuturism in the Twenty-First Century.

Riri Williams, a 15-year-old engineering student (played by actress Dominique Thorne) who assumes the role of Ironheart in the Marvel comics, joins Shuri to protect the kingdom of Wakanda. Photo courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

“This is a chance for the Marvel Cinematic Universe films to catch up with the Marvel comics themselves because, since 2005, we have indeed seen a number of female Black Panthers — often temporary — stepping in to help save the country when our main Black Panther is off, perhaps doing his superhero work, or for some other reason out of commission,” Yaszek says. "We saw Shuri step in as the Black Panther, and more recently, in 2018, Nnedi Okorafor's Long Live the King series imagined that a Black, disabled, teenage, Nigerian genius would be stepping in to take over the role when our regular Black Panther was unavailable.”

Yaszek says having Black Panther be depicted as a female hero finds the film franchise reflecting the real-life female leaders seen today in politics and business. It also tests Hollywood’s ability to continue developing film and television productions where female superheroes are the main character and can be revenue generators for the studios.

“It's no surprise that we tend to think science fiction is usually about boys and their toys, and often about white boys and their toys, because that's what we get through so much of our media science fiction, especially when it's through Hollywood or through television,” Yaszek says. “Having said that, science fiction is a huge tent, and women and people of color have been writing and reading and dreaming about science fiction just as long as their white counterparts.”

Coogler introduces a new female character in the sequel. Riri Williams (Ironheart), played by actress Dominique Thorne, is an MIT student and inventor from Chicago who first appeared in the Iron Man comic books in 2016. In a recent interview, Coogler said Williams would contrast Shuri’s character much like Killmonger did to T’Challa.

"...women and people of color have been writing and reading and dreaming about science fiction just as long as their white counterparts.” - Lisa Yaszek, Regents’ Professor of Science Fiction Studies.

Yaszek says it’s an opportunity to show women from across the diaspora and how they can relate to each other’s experiences.

“It's very much part of contemporary feminism to think about our connections to other women as not necessarily all equal," she says. "But that we have different experiences of patriarchy, of science and technology, of liberation, of women's lives, and we can connect with each other and recognize that there are indeed sometimes greater threats where we want to band together to fight.”

Wakanda Means Freedom for Black Existence

Anticipation about the film has increased in the weeks leading up to the release of the film. Marvel Entertainment held a star-studded premiere in Los Angeles on Oct. 26. Two days later, Rihanna released her first single in six years, “Lift Me Up,” recorded specifically for the film. And the addition of the Namor, king of the underwater ancient civilization Talokan, reimagines the comic book character — based on the Mayan civilization — in cinematic form further expanding the cultural relevance of the film.

Morris says she expects when fans of Marvel, or specifically of the film Black Panther, come to theaters, they will feel the loss of Boseman. “It's going to be kind of a homegoing for Chadwick Boseman, who I think, represented a particular kind of progressive black masculinity,” she says. “I know people have been talking about wearing white or royal purple or gold.”

In spite of Boseman’s absence, Wakanda’s technological brilliance, natural beauty and pageantry of its people will still shine.

The late Chadwick Boseman played the role of T'Challa, King of Wakanda, and Black Panther. Photo courtesy of Marvel Entertainment.

And for many Black people, the film continues to push a black heroism narrative that is not founded on trauma, says André Brock, associate professor of Literature, Media and Communication. It’s a cinematic effort that, according to Brock, “will celebrate the possibilities of a technologized blackness.”

“Wakanda is abolition. It's freedom to experience life to the fullest without being oppressed by systems designed to hold you back. And I think that's why people get so attached to the idea of Wakanda,” Brock says. “But abolition makes so much more sense to me than saying I need a geopolitical space that I can hide in. No, I want to be free wherever I go. So, Wakanda is abolition, 100%.”

If you're interested in exploring Afrofuturism, speculative fiction, or harnessing new technology to tell stories, check out what Georgia Tech's School of Literature, Media, and Communication (LMC) has to offer. In addition to threads within the LMC degree that focus on literature; social justice; and science, technology, and culture, the School offers minors in Science Fiction Studies; Science, Technology, and Society; Social Justice; Black Media Studies; and Film & Media Studies.