Black Panther is a fantasy movie, and why that matters

Fantasy media involves magic, and/or takes place on an alternate world. Technically, Black Panther fits both those criteria. So why is that important?

Let’s talk about fantasy for a moment. Broad definitions of the genre say it involves some form of magic, and/or takes place on an alternate world. Black Panther meets those criterion, but why is that important?

Firstly, a bit more clarification. Wakanda’s power comes from technological advances; it was made great by the skill and innovation of its people rather than supernatural causes. But Wakanda’s technology is so advanced that to outsiders (or probably Arthur C. Clarke) it is almost “indistinguishable from magic,” and some things — like the flower which gives the Black Panther their power — border on explicitly fantastical.

More than having a few topical elements of the genre, Black Panther uses many of the same patterns of storytelling. A young king who must come into his own, an emphasis on family, ritual, and succession, visions of family members who offer their guidance. These popular fantasy tropes and more all appear in Black Panther.

More than mere taxonomy

Accepting Black Panther as an entry into the fantasy canon is important when you consider that fantasy is one of the whitest genres on the face of the planet. There’s a myriad of fantasy writers of color who have written amazing stories about characters of color. But when we think of the mainstream fantasy cliché, it’s almost always going to be a buff white guy on a tacky book cover, probably with a scantily clad white woman clutching his protruding kneecaps. And the movie industry has done little to nothing to dispel that image.

Listen. I love The Lord of the Rings. But no matter what justifications you come up with to defend the predominantly white casting (and I have yet to hear any good ones), it results in a visual language that is inherently racist. Even the Hobbit movies, which came out a decade later, still only have characters of color in the background. The leads are entirely white.

Guys, the movie Dungeons and Dragons, which came out the same year as the Fellowship of the Ring and earned a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, had two dark-skinned people cast in non-evil roles. If this hilariously bad movie can do better than one of the most critically acclaimed fantasy films in existence, what does that say about the state of the genre?

How Marvel has crossed into fantasy

Thor is the go-to sci-fi/fantasy franchise within the Marvel universe. In Ragnarok, we get to see Heimdall as played by Idris Elba being a badass sexy space-Aragorn and saving everyone on Asgard (side note: Heimdall totally should have been made king). Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie is one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters, cool and complicated and totally hilarious. But even casting two side characters as actors of color resulted in some pushback from “fans,” claiming everything from the decision being disrespectful to the original characters to, most baffling, it not being “historically accurate.”

It’s amazing how often that claim of historical accuracy pops up in regards to including more women, people of color, and LGBT+ people in fantasy media. These staunch defenders of realism are frothing at the mouth to insist that anyone other than a straight white man has no place in fantasy media, but mysteriously never bring up the fact that no one in Tolkien ever dies of dysentery.

Issues with race are deeply entrenched in the fantasy genre. And the lack of good fantasy movies in general means the majority-white leads are basically all we get. That sends a message to young people of color that characters who look like them have no place in these stories.

Black Panther is changing that. The state of mainstream movies is such that no matter what genre you classify it as, its diverse cast is going to be groundbreaking. But when also considered as a fantasy film, it sets an important precedent.

Black Panther‘s response

In the same way that so many people have claimed there is no “need” for nonwhite people in fantasy narratives, Black Panther creates a world in which there is no logical need for white characters to be present. Instead of arguing about historical inaccuracy being irrelevant in imagined worlds, it simply envisions a society in which that very argument justifies the presence of characters of color rather than excluding them.

Even taken out of context from the history of the fantasy genre, Black Panther is still important. It proves that movies can have fantastical elements without focusing on white people or white cultures, and be wildly successful at that. With any luck, this will open the door to more diverse fantasy movies, as well as adaptations of fantasy written by/about people of color. By creating more diverse media and giving due recognition to the diverse media that has already existed, fantasy as a genre will only keep getting better.

Next: Black Panther review: beautiful, innovative, important

So here’s to breaking down the stereotypes about fantasy by breaking down the stereotypes within fantasy. Who else is hype for A Wrinkle In Time?