Movies - TV
The Black Panther Films Do Have A Villain—Just Not The Kind You Think
By LYVIE SCOTT
"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" director Ryan Coogler doesn't see his villains as villains, even if characters like Erik Killmonger and Namor make things difficult for the good guys. It would be easy to deduce that the "Black Panther" films are without villains altogether, but it's been said that the true villain isn't something you can easily put your finger on.
The villain is colonialism, which largely presents itself in Wakanda's thrilling disputes with the West. Killmonger is, as T'Challa puts it, a monster created by Wakanda, making him tremendously layered and eternally complex, forcing T'Challa to confront his forefather's sins of complicity in the subjugation of their neighbors on the continent and beyond the world.
By focusing on Namor and his people, "Wakanda Forever" provides a fresh way to combat colonialism while also putting Namor's situation in context and allowing the viewer to fully see what Namor is up against. Namor, like Killmonger, is driven to prevent his people from going through what his ancestors did as a result of colonization.