Lucrative spin-offs likely from Black superhero movies
LOS ANGELES: Showbiz industry players are expecting lucrative spin-offs from the unexpected money-spinning potential of Black superhero movies.
When Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ took home the Oscar for best animated feature on Sunday, it capped off 12 months that have changed the notion of what a superhero movie could be.
‘Spider-Verse’, which centres on Afro-Latino teen Miles Morales, and Marvel Studios’ Black Panther gave black and brown kids superheroes who looked like them, and also won over movie audiences and critics alike.
“When we hear that somebody’s kid was watching the movie and turned to them and said, ‘He looks like me,’ or ‘He speaks Spanish like us,’ we feel that we’ve already won,” said producer Phil Lord during the team’s acceptance speech. Added co-director Peter Ramsey: “We want you all to know, we see you, you’re powerful, this world needs you.”
‘Black Panther’, which earned more than US$1.34 billion at the box office, made Oscar history by being the first superhero movie nominated for best picture. While it didn’t take home that prize, it did nab statues in three categories.
Ruth Carter became the first African-American woman to win in the costume design category, while Hannah Beachler was the first African-American woman to take home a production design win, sharing it with Jay Hart. And Ludwig Goransson won in the original score category.
‘Panther’ and ‘Spider-Verse’ proved to studios that black stories— specifically black-led superhero stories— can excite and resonate with audiences of all backgrounds. The questions now is, what’s next for representation in the superhero genre?
“I’d like to see more and deeper explorations of the core ideas of the superhero genre — responsibility, idealism, resilience, compassion. But those are the things I’d want from any movie in this genre,” ‘Spider-Verse’ co-director Ramsey told The Hollywood Reporter, “I guess what I’d want most would be stories and characters that bring something truly new to the idea of superheroes by embracing as much of the reality of black life and its nuances as possible.”
There are a number of representative comic book films in the works. Director Ryan Coogler is signed for ‘Black Panther 2’ for Marvel, which also has Asian superhero movie ‘Shang-Chi’ in development. A ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel and spinoff are in the works at Sony, while Jamie Foxx’s ‘Spawn’ is set up at Univeral and Blumhouse. Over at Warner Bros. and DC, a ‘Blue Beetle’ movie about the Latino superhero is in development.
Meanwhile, ‘Black Panther’ star Michael B. Jordan’s production company Outlier have stated they are looking for stories like ‘Black Panther’. It is teaming with Warner Bros. to adapt Marlon James’ novel, Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Jordan and Netflix are also adapting the Dennis Liu short film ‘Raising Dion’, about a superhero family drama following a young black boy who develops superpowers.