"Black Panther (Animated Series)" News & Discussion Thread (Spoilers)

Hollywood writer/director + head of programing at BET = Marvel kissing Hudlin's butt and allowing him to do whatever he wants in exchange for either (a) making a BP movie or (b) getting a BP cartoon on BET. Now that Hudlin is no longer the head of BET, his usefulness to Marvel is over and he is slowly and gradually being kicked to the curb (he is no longer writing the BP comic).
 
Ignoring the blatantly ignorant comments (Marvel still has the final sayso as how the character will be adapted, plus, the president of entertainment as well as the president of animation at the network [isn't it still Denys Cowan?]), I'm pleasantly surprised that BET greenlit a Black Panther animated series. It's about time Marvel's first major Black character got an animated series of his own, and considering the players behind the scenes actually know what the character is (and isn't) about, I think it's in good hands. BET actually has a lot of action-oriented animation properties coming soon, including the aforementioned Hannibal as well as a sci-fi actioner produced by Will Smith.

Also, and correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this be the first time in a long time that Marvel animated series outnumber DC titles (Spectacular Spider-Man's on the air right now, and Wolverine and the X-Men, Iron Man, and now Black Panther will follow in 1Q 2009 vs. Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the lone DC series with new episodes on the air)?

BTW, for the ones who "didn't know," BET is essentially a more urban-oriented version of MTV with religious programming on Sundays. Man, I knew Marvel and Viacom were close nowadays, but I didn't realize they were THIS close to bring all their new animated series to the Viacom networks (Nicktoons and BET).
 
While I'm not familiar with Hudlin's work on the comic book, this has potential to be either interesting or bad. I'm just going to wait and see, although I'm certainly less optimistic about this than, say, Wolverine and the X-Men.
 
Well, it's worth pointing out that the 8 episodes are meant to contain the six-issue first story arc, which started off as a six-issue series and went on to 40+ issues and still going. It's also a non-trivial risk in a lot of ways. They addressed this openly when they said that it was Marvel Animation's first foray into prime-time action animation (meaning "for adults," vs. the aired-in-prime-time but aimed at kids and teens of Wolverine and the X-Men) -- the historical record is pretty unforgiving when it comes to action animation in prime-time. I think Invasion USA did pretty well, but Batman the Animated Series didn't make it in prime time and nobody has tried with American animation since.

The other non-trivial risk which they danced around is that Black Panther and BET in general is easy for people to dismiss as "for black people." I don't really think that's fair, since a lot of the stuff Hudlin does in his comic book wouldn't make people blink if it were Wolverine or Batman doing it, but a lot of comic book fans on the Internet seem pre-disposed to dismiss it out of hand right up front. Then again, I don't think they're aiming for a lot of them to begin with, since most pre-existing comic book fans weren't going to read Black Panther in any case.
 
To be honest it's not surprising that it's adapting Hudlin's work on the series since he's the president of the BET, and he's also the head writer for this. He might as well write a check to himself.
 
I'd really like to know the status of this show. I've seen nor heard nothing on either Marvels website nor B.E.Ts. Has this been pushed back? I could have sworn it was supposed to be air early 2009....which is now.........
 
I don't like Hudlin's current take on the Black Panther. I think it has some interesting ideas that are poorly executed. With that in mind, I have some reservations regarding the series.

Of course, it's pointless of me to complain and act like the sky is falling because a character I like had an animated show greenlit for prime time.

Here's hoping for the best.
 
Stalker was African human mutate - human hunter until he met black panther, which could've been a reference to The Black Panther.
When I read these news from www.superherohype.com, people there started wondering what happened with Wesley Snipes doing a movie about him (he has wanted to do this since June 1992, you can read more about it on Wikipedia). In previous appearances The Black Panther has been voiced by Keith David (Fantastic 4 1994), Jeffrey D. Sams (Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise Of The Panther) & Phil LaMarr (Marvel Ultimate Alliance). I think when the opening gets closer, we're going to get another retrospective (I was surprised to find out, that The Black Panther appeared first time in 1966.
 
Based on comments made by Hudlin and Cowan, they haven't cast Black Panther's voice yet. They've apparently decided to animate their program the non-American way, by finishing the animation and THEN bringing in someone to voice the dialogue in sync with the art.

Personally, I think this will result in a final product that either doesn't have great voice/art sync, or where all the voices are going to sound about as natural as the ones in that preview.
 
Glad to hear that they are utilizing Romita Jr's designs as this should be a lot of fun to see animated and JR JR is easily someone that would be inducted into the comic artist hall of fame (if there were one).

Somewhat disappointed to hear that it will only be 8 episodes of the series, but I wonder if these will be half hour episodes or if they would be a full hour - which could explain the episode range.

Looking forward to the first designs being leaked.....

-Joe!
 
Back
Top