Disney Thought Marvel’s Biggest Film Was Going To Fail

Nyong’o was very explicit that this fear about Black Panther’s performance came from the fact that it was the studio’s first Black superhero film. Because of this, she said, “Marvel was shaking a little bit in their boots!” Fortunately, those fears were meaningless: Black Panther went on to earn $1.35 billion and became the sixth highest-grossing superhero film ever made.

It wasn’t just the Marvel suits who were nervous about Black Panther failing. Nyong’o added, “we were too because we were like, we only get to do this once.” The bar of expectations was set very high, and everyone involved could agree on one crucial point: “we gotta do it right.”

Fortunately for the director, cast, crew, and studio, Black Panther was a massive success with audiences and critics alike. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a critical score of 96 percent, with critics praising the unconventional story (especially by the standards of Marvel movies) and fully realized characters. They also praised how the movie elevated superhero cinema, a feat which helped Black Panther take home three Academy Awards (which certainly makes the film one of the most prestigious in the MCU).

One of those Academy Awards was for Best Costume Design, awarded to Ruth Carter. This award alone helped Black Panther quietly make Hollywood history because she was the first African-American woman to take home this prestigious award. As Lupita Nyong’o points out, though, this movie is an exemplar of Black excellence all around.

As she sees it, Black Panther’s success goes beyond its impressive box-office performance and critical acclaim. “It totally shattered the myth that Black doesn’t sell.” Ideally, this success will continue to inspire Marvel to take more creative risks and provide more innovative storytelling rather than trotting out the same old formula that grew stale long ago.

Ironically enough, one of the creatively riskier movies that Marvel later made was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the sequel made despite the shocking death of Chadwick Boseman. Many assumed that his death would mean the end of this hit franchise for the simple fact that he played the title character. Replacing such characters isn’t unheard of (just ask Captain America), but it was understandably difficult (if not impossible)  to imagine anyone replacing Boseman in this iconic role. 

The sequel sidestepped this issue by making the movie all about mourning the titular character while introducing new fan favorites like Namor. And while it wasn’t as much of a success as the first movie, it ended up earning $859.2 million, which is nothing to sneeze at.

Lupita Nyong’o is convinced that the success of Black Panther proved to Marvel that Black films can be very successful. With any luck, we’ll see more such films from the studio, though the next Black-led films after Captain America 4, Blade and War Machine, seem to have completely stalled in its development as executives try to get the story just right.

Perhaps they can learn one more lesson from the success of Black Panther: when you have captivating characters played by compelling actors, your killer script practically writes itself.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter