Honestly, I don’t think it behooves Disney to admit they’ve made a mistake, because that has yet to be proven when it comes to the bottom line. This gambit of theirs just might work, and if the film hits a billion and definitely exceeds the box office take of the first Black Panther, that will only reinforce the idea that they made the right decision and the audience cares (or cared) more about Wakanda than T’Challa the Black Panther.
Further, once Shuri or whatever female gets the mantle is ensconced, that character will be harder than a tick to extract from the franchise, especially if they have a billion-dollar film under them, the first black female superhero to do so. That’s the new history that we will be told we must protect at all costs or else black women and girls will have no representation or no one to look up to. All the reasons and rationalizations being used now to justify expelling T’Challa from the franchise will be turned around to defend keeping Shuri or a female Black Panther.
We will hear less talk about how much people were into Wakanda than they are a female BP. About the only changes I could see if this happens is that the door will be open to use the franchise to set up other marginalized or “marginalized” groups, and before even the black feminists know it, Black Panther will be People of Color Panther or Diverse Panther.
The gleeful eagerness to eliminate a black male starring role for this franchise is only the precursor to eliminating a black female starring role and the roles of black people all together in this franchise. I am waiting to see the talk about how Black Panther wasn’t made a success because of black people or “just because” of black people, about how Black Panther has a “diverse” fanbase, and how we can’t claim ownership, to do so-to even think it-reeks of “entitlement”, or racism (reverse racism), xenophobia, or the most dreaded "toxicity."
To me, there’s no clear right or wrong when it comes to Disney, outside of what affects the bottom line ultimately. Certainly, they want to push their agenda, and even if that fails, I still don’t see them admitting it. Think of how many agenda-laden films and series have failed or underwhelmed so far, but Hollywood is determined to keep pushing more of them on the audience. Wakanda Forever flopping or seriously underperforming will not allow them to spin it away so easily, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still dig in their heels and admit they were wrong or that the fanbase for T’Challa is bigger than they would have us believe. So I feel Disney will be torn between wanting to get money but also the agenda, and sometimes the agenda wins out, sometimes the money, but IMO they will attempt to make the money without rejecting the agenda, or paring it back to make it more tolerable.
Lucasfilm has yet to admit their mistakes, though they have made some changes to better accommodate disconsolate fans. Star Trek has done so as well, but to their credit, they were never as snippy with their fans (outside of cracking down on fan films) as Disney Star Wars was, or the Hollywood media defending them.
It is disheartening to see how much influence we have given Disney, and that’s on us, myself included. We have black characters created by black creatives that barely anyone knows about or puts a lot of value in. There’s no reason that Black Hollywood or music moguls can’t get money together and get some of these projects on screens big or small. If we had movies based on characters from Milestone, Konkret, Advent, Darkstorm, Godhood, 4th Wall, Diverse, Impound, Urban Style, PunxofRage, Powerverse, YouNeek, etc., or characters like Icon, Purge, Aceblade, Almighty Street Team, Dreadlocks, or Noble, etc., I think the wound of not recasting T’Challa wouldn’t hurt as much. And if we had more projects with black female superheroes, from Livewire, Ant, Megawoman, Sankofa Guard, to Sister Circle X, there would be less clamoring-perhaps-to cannibalize the Black Panther franchise or any black male-led franchise really-in favor of black females. Now, the hardcore feminists would never tire of that, but I think their arguments would hold less water among the masses if there were lots of black female characters doing their thing in movies and television.
And there’s little excuse-outside of general ignorance-that we aren’t backing more of these books out there. I’m not saying all of them are good, but neither are Marvel, DC, or the other white-owned comic book corporations, all the time either. But we are conditioned to keep going back to them and demanding-begging-for better representation while too often ignoring or disparaging the black creatives who are already doing that. It’s shameful that we have given so much power over our imaginations to Kevin Feige.
