There’s no denying it: Marvel’s Black Panther franchise has made an indelible mark on our culture and has spawned millions of fans—including our very own editor at large, Gayle King. The affirmation that Black representation onscreen and behind the camera doesn’t just matter but is critical is but one of the things that has made the franchise a game changer. Prolific writer, journalist, and Oprah’s Book Club author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose work largely focuses on Black America, talks about this very concept on his new podcast, Wakanda Forever: The Official Black Panther Podcast.
Coates read the Marvel comics growing up and penned a Black Panther comic series for Marvel not long ago. In a way, he was destined to write and host this new podcast and explore the emotions behind the film’s creation. While the first episode was released late last year, the remaining parts of this six-episode project are now dropping weekly.
Coates caught up with Oprah Daily just days after Angela Bassett’s unbelievable performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned her a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture, making her the first person in a Marvel film to win for an acting role.
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A dream realized
For Coates, the ongoing opportunity to be involved in the Black Panther series is not one that he takes lightly. Before taking on this podcast, he wrote the sixth volume of the comic in 2016. He also wrote a spinoff called Black Panther and the Crew.
“It’s the fulfillment of my dream, you know? It just never occurred to me that I would get the opportunity to write comic books myself,” says Coates. “I think as writers and artists, we’re always struggling to stay in touch with the younger version of ourselves, which is really the reason why we started doing it to begin with. There’s a child in me that I’m trying to get to whenever I’m writing. So that was a big part of it. That’s been a big part of the joy of Black Panther.”
This podcast project also allows Coates to pay homage to an old friend and the star of the first movie, Chadwick Boseman. Coates and Boseman, who passed away from colon cancer in 2020, attended Howard University together in the 1990s. Much of the podcast centers around the impact that Boseman had in his short life. Boseman's wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, is also a featured guest on the podcast.
What Black Panther means to audiences
While being a part of this franchise in so many ways feels personal to Coates, he also acknowledges the large-scale impact it has had on the world—something he says matters, given our current political climate. “Politics are always deeply informed—and I would argue, even bounded—by culture. We’re in a moment where political figures are working to ban certain things from curriculum, or ban certain books from being consumed. Those people recognize the significance of culture,” he says.
Coates believes this makes the impact of Black Panther even more profound and says that it “means something” that a film that centers on a Black cast made history at the Golden Globes this year. “That says something about the centrality of this story within the culture,” he says. “And that means something because for the world that so many of us are fighting for, where people are treated in a more humane way, in order for that world to be, people have to believe you’re human to begin with. How do we perpetuate our notions of humanity and who is worthy of respect? It’s through movies. It’s through stories. It’s through books. It’s through comic books, novels, et cetera. Music, it’s the culture. It’s why it matters.”
You can stream Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Disney+ starting on February 1. The original series Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever lands on the same platform on February 22.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Jane Burnett is an Assistant Editor at Oprah Daily, where she writes a variety of lifestyle content for the editorial team. She's a journalist with a pop culture sweet tooth—when she isn't catching up on celebrity news, she's usually listening to a podcast! Jane was previously an on-air reporter in local news, and worked at Thrive Global, Ladders News, and Reuters. She also interned at CNBC through the Emma Bowen Foundation, and is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).
