Hollywood isn’t nearly woke enough
The release of the $200 million superhero blockbuster “Black Panther” in February 2018 was heralded as a breakthrough in the representation of African Americans on the screens of American cinemas. Now, more than four years after its release and on the eve of its highly anticipated sequel, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” is a good time to ask: Was it really the game changer everyone hoped it would be?
The movie was the first black superhero with their name in the title since “Hancock” 10 years before and a rare example of a mainstream film with a predominantly black cast. It was described as no less than “a defining moment for Black America” by Carvell Wallace, writing in The New York Times Magazine.
Many other critics were quick to label it a “game changer,” a “watershed” and a “milestone.” Black Panther went on to become the most successful film at the U.S. box office in 2018, beating even “Avengers: Infinity War,” and was the first from the genre to ever be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards.
We frequently hear variations of the claim that the American film industry has “gone woke” and that Hollywood has been taken over by women, ethnic minorities and non-heteronormatives. Superhero films like “Black Widow” (2021), “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021) and “Eternals” (2021) seem to be examples of this.
The latter featured an ethnically diverse cast of lead performers of Chinese, Pakistani, African American, Mexican American, Korean American and Lebanese Hispanic descent. It was also the first MCU film to have as leads a named gay character and a disabled superhero played by a disabled actor.
Yet these films are very much exceptions to the patterns of representation across the industry, rather than being the norm, according
to studies by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Geena Davis Institute and UCLA’s “Hollywood Diversity Report”.
These studies reveal that in the years since “Black Panther,” in actual fact, not a great deal has changed at all. Small gains have been made in terms of representation in front of the camera. In 2021, the percentage of roles in leading films played by those from within minority groups roughly correlates to the percentage the group occupies in the U.S. as a whole according to the “Hollywood Diversity Report.” However, the box office results in the years 2018 to 2022 show that mainstream films remain a resolutely white, male and heteronormative space.
Behind the camera every single study comes to the same conclusion: that while things are slightly better than they have been in previous years, almost every
profession within the film industry is still overwhelmingly dominated by white males, from directing to screenwriting, cinematography to producing.
Consider that 80.9% of the top 1388 films made between 2007 and 2021 were directed by white men, with only 4.2% directed by women. In 2021, however, some progress had been made, with 30.2% directed by those from underrepresented groups. As positive as this might be, it is very far from parity and even further from the “wokeness run amok” that conservative news sites regularly warn their viewers of.
In October 2022 this issue remains as relevant as ever. Hardly a month goes by without angry reactions from some sections of the fan community about the casting of performers like Halle Bailey as Ariel in next year’s live action remake of “Little Mermaid,” and the diverse casts of
TV shows like “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” and “House of the Dragon.”
Unfortunately, many view the issue of diversity through the prism of what is lost, rather than what is gained. They are those who only see a film as political, using the word in a pejorative sense, when it disagrees with own their politics.
The release of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” will re-ignite these debates once again, with many emphatically convinced of their opinion that Hollywood has “gone woke,” even though all evidence points to the contrary. The truth is that some progress has been made, but not enough.