Before Star Wars in 1977, Hollywood did not do franchises. Now they do all the time.
There is a reason for that.
One is that Hollywood needs something to do when they know they don't have enough talent for a legendary movie, but they still want to do a little movie for fun.
In the old days they simply made another film noir like every other film noir, another musical like every other musical, something like that.
But after Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out, that went out the window.
People had seen these amazing, completely unique movies.
It was not enough to just do a formula film noir or something like that.
So they do sequels.
But there is another reason for franchises.
And that's when you have a story too big for one movie.
A fun-movie version of this is the classic Marvel Cinematic Universe- that is, through Phase 3. You used this to do different kinds of superhero movies- including a classic comic-book style continuing storyline, through the Captain America and Avengers movies to follow the original Avengers, to the final climax in Avengers 3 and 4.
But this is even more rewarding in serious storytelling.
The original Star Wars trilogy is a masterpiece that could never have fit in a single movie.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's amazing that this was even fit into three movies.
Two good examples of this are the Black Panther movies (so far as of 2023) and Star Trek 2 and 3, from 1982 and 1984.
Most of the Star Trek movies are standalone stories that simply share the same characters and the same space exploration.
But the 2nd and 3rd movies, The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock, were different.
The great Harve Bennett, in these, set up a pair of consecutive movies to explore ideas more thoroughly than he could in a single movie.
The resolution of Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan creates the conflict that drives the plot of Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock.
And in these two movies, a series of ideas are explored more thoroughly than they could have been in a single movie.
The first movie, in addition to its Shakespearean main plot, a thriller worthy of Macbeth, puts forth the idea of creating new life in the Genesis Project- and the philosophical idea that 'the good of the many outweighs the good of the few'.
The second movie explores these themes further, adding the theme of our mind as perhaps something that can outlive the body, and life after death. These themes- as well as the themes explored in the Shakespearean story of Khan's obsession, which are further explored through a different character with a different story and angle in the Klingon villain in The Search for Spock- are explored far more extensively than all those themes could possibly be explored in a single movie.
Two stories, two movies, and a single set of philosophical themes explored throughout them both. Explored far more extensively than they could together in a single movie.
Black Panther, too, is more than just a fun superhero movie.
It is a serious idea movie- and a worldbuilding fantasy.
Its idea is to explore the idea of a native African civilization that is technologically advanced- far beyond the world around them.
Black Panther 2 adds to this.
For African civilization is not the only non-'western' civilization in our world's past to be overrun by European colonialists.
Black Panther introduces Wakanda, which is based on many real characteristics of real African culture.
Wakanda is a technologically advanced civilization far beyond the rest of the world, from a non-'western' background.
Black Panther 2 introduces another- Namor the Sub-Mariner's civilization.
It is not African.
It is from yet another overlooked, underestimated non-'western' civilization- only one that in this case has, in the world of the movie, retreated under the sea.
(Yes, comic-book fans, that means that they changed the origin and name of Namor's civilization for the movie.)
Now there are two.
One African. One Nahuatl, perhaps.^
And another question: Wakanda is technologically advanced- but small.
How does Wakanda prevent the rest of the world from overrunning them for their resources, now that the world knows their secret?
This is not resolved in Black Panther 2.
It is left for Black Panther 3.
Critics, mistaking Black Panther 2 for a Superhero action movie, have said that the movie is slow and long.
Yes it is. Black Panther 2 is slow and long- in the same way as The Empire Strikes Back.
This is a great series.
Black Panther was the Star Wars of its generation.
Black Panther 2 is its Empire Strikes Back.
And to be Black Panther's Empire Strikes Back, to be the movie in the series that goes deeper into the worldbuilding and big ideas, they had to sacrifice being a superhero action movie on the side. There was simply far less room for action on the side.
The Black Panther movies are to be considered separately from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (which I love, by the way.)
These are not just superhero action movies.
These are worldbuilding fantasy, and serious big-idea movies worthy of Star Trek II and III described above.
Worldbuilding fantasy showing a side of our own real world- one that had been forgotten.
Black Panther 2 expanded the scope of the series immensely- to two civilizations like Wakanda, from two completely different real-life non-'western' civilizations.
And an unresolved question to get us thinking about real-life European colonialism, and recognizing the true nature of the world- which still belongs just as much to non-'western' cultures as to the so-called 'western' civilization descended from western Europe.
Japan has risen. South Korea has risen. India and China are rising.
Nigeria could be next.
Mexico could be next.
The Cherokee and the Navajo could be creative in the same way as Japan and South Korea someday soon.
This is part not only of the past of our own real world, but of its future as well.
'Western' civilization will not always dominate.
The Cherokee and the Navajo* will not always be faded in the background. (* or the Dine')
This is our world's true reality, reflected in fiction.
And, like the Black Panther movies, it is not all terrible.
Some of it is beautiful.
Including the promise of the future for nations like Nigeria and people like the Cherokee.
Two great movie serieses- and the true nature of our world.
For your consideration.
God loves you! Look to the light!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. I am encouraged to read that the director and others behind the Black Panther movies are taking a break before figuring out how to resolve what they have set up (without a huge cliffhanger) in Black Panther 2 in a future Black Panther 3. Take the time to do it right, and we will wait!
^Not actually Nahuatl, but rather some of their neighbors. But if I said who they really were, you'd know immediately what civilization they are from, for you would recognize the name!
P.P.S. One more thing- please don't come to me with a lot of 'I don't like Black Panther Wakanda Forever, where was Wakanda during Avengers: Endgame' kind of stuff (I literally just came from one of those)... when I am watching a Black Panther movie, I do not care what happened in the rest of the MCU, I only care what happened in the Black Panther movies! You cannot create a complex world of intertwined franchises as complex as the MCU without risking a lot of stuff like that, unless you have someone as breathtakingly thorough as JRR Tolkien, and I don't think that this is a good excuse to not tell the story of Black Panther!