The costume worn by Chadwick Boseman in “Black Panther” will be displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington as part of an exhibition that promises to be historic…
Black Panther enters the museum! Indeed, the National Museum of African American History and Culture of the Smithsonian Institution located in Washington will soon host the famous costume worn by Chadwick Boseman in the first film Black Panther by Ryan Coogler, released in 2018.
The costume will be included in the exhibition “Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures” from March 2023, an exhibition which, according to the Smithsonian, seeks to elevate stories by using objects that speak of social equality and the liberation of Black. The hero’s costume will undeniably be one of the highlights of the exhibition.
“On March 24, 2023, our museum will open a large, thought-provoking exhibition, ‘Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures’. One of the highlights of this new exhibit will be the #BlackPanther hero costume worn by the late Chadwick Boseman, pictured here.”
The temporary exhibition will therefore highlight African-American culture throughout history in general, but also through the history of art, music and cinema. Thus, in addition to the Black Panther costume, we can see the uniform worn by Nichelle Nichols (Lieutenant Nyota Uhura) in Star Trek, the typewriter used by the science fiction writer Octavia E. Butler or even the costume inspired by the spacesuit worn by singer Nona Hendryx.
As the museum explains on its website:
Black Panther is the first superhero of African descent to appear in mainstream American comic books, and the film itself is the first major motion picture based on the character. Black Panther exemplifies the progression of black people in film, an industry that in the past has overlooked black people or regulated them to flat, one-dimensional, marginalized figures. The film, like the museum, provides a fuller history of black culture and identity.
When it was released in 2018, Black Panther indeed made history as the first superhero film of African origin, but not only: the film was also a dazzling commercial success, having won no less than 1 $.34 billion at the box office.
In this first installment, Chadwick Boseman played the hero, also known as T’Challa, the ruler of Wakanda. Died in August 2020 from cancer, the second opus, Wakanda Forever, freshly released on November 9, had to be done without him.
But the craze for the superhero known as Black Panther, whoever he is, has absolutely not weakened 4 years later since the second opus brought together almost 250,000 spectators on its first day of exploitation thus exceeding its predecessor which had gathered 178,202 admissions.
Therefore, if you want to be able to admire the legendary costume up close, go to Washington. The exhibition “Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures” will be visible from March 2023 to March 2024.
In the meantime, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is in theaters now.