--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Welcome to Today Explained. I'm Sean Rameswaram, and this is a special episode. We're looking back at one of our favorite episodes from last year, and it's all about the movie Black Panther.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Right after we launched Today Explained, we put out an episode about the movie Black Panther. It was actually the second episode of the show we ever released. It was called Black Panther is the Most Important Movie of 2018. Just after we released the episode, a family friend of mine messaged me and said, hey man, one of my close college friends actually produced that movie. He's one of the reasons that movie exists. And I was like, cool, tell him to listen, tell him to check it out. Tell him thanks, it's a great movie.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The family friend said he would, and later that day said, this is what he says. That's a lofty title for an episode. Maybe it's the most important movie in 2018 so far? The year still has a lot of gas in the tank.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Well, I want to tell this friend of my family friend who produced Black Panther that the year has come to an end, and Black Panther is the most important movie of 2018. It made a billion dollars. The costume is down here at the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in D.C. There have been scholarships in Africa set up in honor of the movie. It's been nominated for Grammys and Golden Globes. The Oscars changed their rules for Black Panther. but more so than any of that, on Halloween night, seeing the amount of kids who came to my door wearing Black Panther costumes and screaming Wakanda forever.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Just how often is it palpable how much a movie has changed people's lives? So, it's the end of the year. We're looking back at some of our favorite episodes, and we wanted to bring you this one.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: What do you know about Wakanda? Wakanda is the most advanced country in the world thanks to this crazy fictional super metal called... Vibranium is 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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. 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.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Just one year later we had a looking at this dope 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, you get to feel empowered like this and represented.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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 in 125th Street in Harlem. People were renting out entire theaters for private screenings. There's a whole room full of gorgeous black people right now. A couple of white people, too. And a couple of white people. People were celebrating their major life events at Black Panther.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Yeah, that's what she said. Pretty much on point.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So what took so long? Why were there three Iron Mans, six Spider-Mans, and an Ant-Man movie before this?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I asked the guy who's writing the Black Panther comics right now after the break. This is Today Explained.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I hear people like true crime podcasts. Murderville is one you should check out. It's from The Intercept. It's hosted by two veteran investigative journalists, Liliana Segura and Jordan Smith.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Together, the two of them have more than 30 years of experience investigating wrongful convictions specifically. And in this show, they look into one that happened in Georgia, a small town in Georgia where a brutal murder occurs and everyone is shocked.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The cops pin it on the new guy in town. They throw him away in prison. But then another murder happens and another. In the end, there's four bodies, two convictions, one man in jail for a crime he probably didn't commit.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: 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?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Oh, man. The Haitian sensation. Probably super speed. Evan Narcisse 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: You know, Sean, I'm almost genetically engineered for this moment, right? This movie 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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 Abe! 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: They knew that yes there's a history of stereotypes calling the 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 you know pains me to say is the 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
--:-- Evan Narcisse: Tell me what made you cry, Evan. Oh man, I mean like literally the first line what which what's the first line? A little boy saying baba tell me your story and 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: King of my city king of my country king of my homeland king of the filthy king of the fallen we living again king of the shooters looters boosters and ghettos popping king of the past present future my ancestors watching 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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 society think of this 30 years ago? I'm confused.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: Because there are a bunch of bullshit attitudes and preconceived notions and quote 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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? You've 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 Forrest Whitaker and Angela Bassett.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: This movie took 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. This shouldn't be this feat of institutional breakers 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 Narcisse: 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: 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 change the world.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: You know, the thing about superheroes is that they're 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. Like, 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.
--:-- Evan Narcisse: And have these huge stakes be part of it, too. That lets you know you can change other people's lives for the better. Like that's important messaging to experience from kids of um 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.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Evan Narcisse writes the comic book series Rise of the Black Panther from Marvel. Shouts to Keisha TK Dutess for inviting me to her friend's engagement party in Brooklyn, and to Vox's Christina Anemachan for lending her voice to today's episode. I'm Sean Rameswaram for him. This is Today Explained.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Sean, Julie Bogan, social media manager. Great show launch. You know what else would be great? If you didn't forget to plug the Twitter account. Today underscore explained. Capisce?
