Today, Explained - Wakanda forever

Episode Date: August 31, 2020

The actor Chadwick Boseman died of cancer on Friday, but because of Black Panther he’ll live forever. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit connectsontario.ca. We are not wanting for reminders of how fragile and fleeting life can be in 2020, but on Friday night, we got another one anyway. The actor Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer at 43, and he chose to suffer in silence. Even his closest friends and collaborators only discovered he had cancer when they heard about his passing. Chadwick had been battling cancer for the past four years while playing superheroes in movies, Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and Black Panther. As the world mourned Chadwick Boseman this weekend, an old interview resurfaced. It was from a Black Panther press junket. Chadwick

is talking about two kids with cancer who couldn't wait to see the movie. Throughout our filming, I was communicating with them, knowing that they were both terminal. And what they said to me is, and their parents said, they just, they're trying to hold on till this movie comes. Bozeman says he couldn't believe Black Panther would mean that much to two kids with terminal cancer. I think back now to a kid and just, you know, waiting for Christmas to come, waiting for my birthday to come, waiting for a toy that I was going to get a chance to experience or a video game. I did live life waiting for those moments.

And so what put me back in the mind of being a kid, just to experience those two little boys, anticipation of this movie. And when I found out that they... Taking time with it. Yeah, it means a lot. The kids didn't make it, and now we know that Boseman himself was battling cancer when he gave this interview. He'll always be remembered for playing a superhero,

for playing Black Panther, but in death, Chadwick Boseman has become a superhero. To celebrate his work, we're going to run the second ever episode of Today Explained. It ran on February 20th, 2018, a few days after Black Panther opened in theaters across the country. We knew how important this movie was then, and it's only become more important since.

Thank you, Chadwick. When I was 7, 8, 9 years old, my prime comic book years, the store in my neighborhood that sold comics did not have the best selection. You had your Batman, your Superman, your Spider-Man, Archie. Seeing someone who looked like me didn't really feel like an option. And that didn't even feel weird. Most people I knew hadn't heard of Sri Lanka, the country where my parents were from. Most people I knew couldn't even say my last name. So it felt pretty normal to dream of being a white guy.

My brother wanted to be Batman, so I was left wanting to be Spider-Man. Anyway, fast forward a couple decades, it feels like there's a new superhero movie every other week. I'm not holding my breath for a big South Asian superhero movie, but it sure is nice to finally see Black Panther. The Black Panther has been the protector of Wakanda for generations. A mantle passed from warrior to warrior. Now because your friend murdered my father, I also wear the mantle of king. Black Panther already feels like the most important movie of the year. And to understand why,

you have to understand who Black Panther is. Your Highness. Under the Black Panther mask is T'Challa, king of a fictional African nation called Wakanda. What do you know about Wakanda? Wakanda is the most advanced country in the world thanks to this crazy fictional super metal called... Vibranium.

It's stronger than steel and a third the weight. It's completely vibration absorbent. It powers their trains, it powers their weapons, and it's the special sauce in Black Panther's superhero suit. Despite all of its sophistication, Wakanda keeps a low profile. Most people don't even know it exists. As a result, no slave trade, no colonialism, just this dream of black excellence. Show me my respect.

Black Panther shows up for just a few scenes in Captain America Civil War. But you know when an exciting new superhero shows up for a few scenes in a Marvel movie? Big things are ahead. Just one year later, we had a trailer for a standalone Black Panther movie. I waited my entire life for this. The world's gonna start over. I'm gonna burn it all. We sitting here looking at this dope-ass Black Panther poster.

For some fans, seeing the poster alone, just the poster, was almost too much to take. This is what white people get to feel all the time. All the time! All the time! Since the beginning of cinema. All the time! You get to feel all the time. All the time! All the time! Since the beginning of cinema. All the time! You get to feel empowered like this and represented. This? This is what y'all feel like all the time?

I would love this country too. Before Black Panther even came out, it felt like a game changer. But if there were any doubts, this weekend drove the point home. Representation matters, and it's good for business. Welcome, welcome. People were dressing up to go see this movie. I'm actually wearing a dashiki, and she's wearing a matching skirt that I had made down on 125th Street in Harlem.

People were renting out entire theaters for private screenings. It's a whole room full of gorgeous black people right now. A couple white people too. And a couple of white people. People were celebrating their major life events at Black Panther. I'm Terrence, this is Tiffany. This is our engagement party. I went to the Alpine Cinemas in Brooklyn the night Black Panther opened.

Terrence and Tiffany seemed more excited about the movie than their own marriage. Is there a chance it doesn't meet your expectations? No chance. None whatsoever, I believe in it. I've always been a big fan of Chadwick Boseman. I've actually got a crush on him since he was on Lincoln Heights. I'm sorry to hear that. That's cool, that's cool.

She knows about me and Rihanna. Rihanna doesn't know about me and Rihanna, but she knows about me and Rihanna. You know, our family is here. Our friends are here. Our co-workers that support us and our black love. So that's what it is. Yeah, what she said. Pretty much on point. I don't think I've ever been in a more rapturous movie theater than Terrence and Tiffany's Black Panther screening. People were yelling, people were crying, people were laughing.

And it wasn't the kids in the theater freaking out. It was their parents, the ones who grew up wishing they could see themselves saving the world. Black Panther made a ton of money over the weekend, over $200 million. It broke all sorts of records, including the biggest long weekend haul ever. Kendrick Lamar's soundtrack is the number one album in the country.

Michelle Obama endorsed the movie on Twitter. Congrats to the entire Black Panther team. Because of you, young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen. I loved this movie, and I know it will inspire people of all backgrounds to dig deep and to find the courage to be the heroes of their own stories. So what took so long? Why were there three Iron Mans, six Spider-Mans, and an Ant-Man movie before this?

I asked the guy who's writing the Black Panther comics right now after the break. This is Today Explained. It's all the same. I'm always ready to take a life again. You know I'll ride again. It's all the same. Tell me who's gonna save me from myself. Support for Today Explained comes from Aura. Aura believes that sharing pictures is a great way to keep up with family. And Aura says it's never been easier thanks to their digital picture frames.

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So yeah, we know that Black Panther is more than just another comic book movie, but what took so long to make it? If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself and what would your power be? Oh man, uh, the Haitian sensation. Probably super speed. Evan Narcissus is a Black panther fan going way way back probably nine or ten years old now he's a grown-up and writes about comic books for io9 and i'm also writing rise of the black panther for marvel comics so he seemed like the right person to ask what makes this

particular story and character and movie so gosh darn important you know sean i'm like i i'm almost genetically engineered for this moment right um um this movie like hit me so hard i wept the first time i saw it and i wept probably exponentially more the last time i saw it. It's very personal. It's very metaphorical. And it feels like a big slice of myth and Shakespeare and blackness all layered on top of each other. I had high expectations that I tried to temper and it exceeded those expectations. There's one character called M'Baku, who in the comics is a supervillain called Man-Ape. And he's played by Winston Duke. I was lucky enough to go to the premiere in L.A., and I talked to him after the movie.

I was like, you know, growing up, we used to make fun of this cat. Like, he was a clown. Come, Black Panther, and face the Man-Ape! And I said, nobody's going to do that now. Nobody's going to laugh at this character now. And that's by virtue of his performance and the way that Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, the other guy who wrote the screenplay, conceptualized this character. They knew that, yes, there's a history of stereotypes calling a black guy an ape.

So let's not do that. And furthermore, let's make this guy ideologically sound in terms of his argument in the plot. They radically reinterpret these characters in some ways that are better than the comics, which pains me to say as a guy who's writing Black Panther comics now, but there's a few things that they do in there

and I'm like, damn it, I wish I could have done that. Tell me what made you cry, Evan. Oh man, I mean, Evan. Oh, man. I mean, like, literally the first line. What? What's the first line? A little boy saying,

Baba, tell me a story. Then he just starts talking about Wakanda, the history of Wakanda. And, you know, the thing that the movie does is if you come from somewhere else that is not America, if you come from another culture that is not white, and if you feel a longing for that place and your sense of self in that place, or your sense of self having to simultaneously exist in two places at once, if you feel any of those things, this movie is going to hit you with like a ton of bricks. King of my city, king of my country, king of my homeland.

King of the filthy, king of the fallen, we livin' again. King of the shooters, looters, boosters, and ghettos poppin'. King of the past, present, future, my ancestors watchin'. King of the culture, king of the soldiers, king of the bloodshed, king of the wisdom, king of the ocean, king of the respect, king of the optimistic and dreamers that go and get it. King of the winners, district and geniuses with conviction.

King of the fighters, king of the fathers. You talked about the movie being sort of steeped in metaphor and myth. What is Wakanda? What does it mean? In the real world, Wakanda is basically the dream of a black culture, of a black people that's never been compromised by white supremacy, by colonialism, by racism, discrimination. And that's a powerful idea that has some historical reference, but not on the scale that we see in the movie. It's a space of completely free black agency where you don't have to worry about what looks respectable or palatable

or certain standards of beauty. Why didn't anyone in this hyper-capitalist society think of this 30 years ago? I'm confused. Because there's a bunch of bullshit attitudes and preconceived notions and quote-unquote conventional wisdom about what plays across the world in terms of Hollywood output. And that's, you know, white people. But nothing about the Black Panther is designed to be a repudiation of other groups' humanity. It's primarily a celebration of Black humanity. And, you know, one of the things about Black Panther that's exhilarating and frustrating at the same time is this is a perfect storm, okay? We got Ryan Coogler, who's coming off Creed. You've got the cast, Chadwick Boseman, who's a ridiculously talented performer.

Lupita Nyong'o, Daniel Kaluuya. But then you've got older generations of actors like Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett. Like, this movie took, like, a very specific planetary alignment to make happen. And what I want is for the next movie that has similar goals or ideas to not need a perfect storm to happen. You know? Like, there shouldn't be this feat of institutional bravery to put out a movie that has mostly black people in it. Right. Black audiences will show up, you know? And non-black audiences, too, you know?

Evan, what do you think this movie means to kids? I mean, when I was young, I saw some lesser black superhero movies. I saw Blank Man. Get ready to rumble! Meteor Man. Meteor Man's in town. I saw Blade.

There's worse things out tonight than vampires. Like what? Like me. I saw Spawn. You sent me to hell, Jason. I'm here to return the favor. It was a real rough run for a minute there, right? Blade is okay.

I'm wondering, like, what do you think it'll mean to see this all-star cast and then this all-star soundtrack and, like, actually get to go buy toys that are centered around a black hero for kids? You get to save the world. You get to save the world. You get to change the world. The thing about superheroes is that by their very nature, they are aspirational, right? So often, these meditations about what human beings

can and can't do happen through white faces. And to have it happen through black faces is like ridiculously meaningful. It it's so important to have a villain who's like semi-sympathetic, charismatic, and compelling, and a black guy, and have him pit off against a hero that is compassionate, clever, and in a loving relationship with his sister and his mom, and have these huge stakes be part of it too.

It lets you know you can change other people's lives for the better. Like that's important messaging to experience from kids of any group, any background, but black kids so rarely get that directly beamed right at their heads and their hearts. And that's what's really important about this movie. All this toxic news, sir. All this toxic news, sir. All this toxic news, sir. Tell me what you're gonna do, tell me...

Evan Narciss writes the comic book series Rise of the Black Panther for Marvel. Shouts to Keisha TK Dutece for inviting me to her friend's engagement party in Brooklyn, and to Vox's Christina Anamashan for lending her voice to today's episode. I'm Sean Ramos-Furham. This is Today Explained. I hate people that feel entitled. Look at me crazy cause I ain't invite you. episode. I'm Sean Ramos for him. This is Today Explained. It's my person that you I'm building with. I want the credit if I'm losing or I'm winning or my mama doesn't