Review – The Black Panther Blu-ray brings Wakanda home

It’s hard to believe that Black Panther opened in theatres just three months ago. Since then, this story of a tertiary Marvel Comics character has become a worldwide smash as well as a cultural phenomenon, illuminating African culture and the black experience to a larger audience than ever before. Helmed by an African-American director (Ryan Coogler) and featuring a predominately black cast, led by Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther, the film is not only a thrilling superhero piece of entertainment, but a celebration of black Afrofuturism that has inspired hordes of people around the world.

That may all sound hyperbolic, but it’s clear that Black Panther has touched many people in a way very few movies do these days. If nothing else, Black Panther raises the bar for superhero movies, and blockbusters in general — this is the kind of thoughtful spectacle and representation audiences are looking for, and are going to start demanding from now on. Read our full review of the film here.

The Black Panther Blu-ray arrives in a striking transfer (also available in a 4K Ultra-HD version) with a few notable extras. There are a number of short featurettes on the production of the film and the mythology of the character and his kingdom of Wakanda, a gag reel that shows the cast flubbing lines and goofing off on set, a commentary track from Ryan Coogler, and a handful of deleted scenes that were rightly cut out from the final film.

For comic fans, the most notable feature on the disc is From Page to Screen: A Roundtable Discussion, featuring Black Panther comic writers Christopher Priest, Don McGregor, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the film’s producer Nate Moore, and the film’s co-writers Joe Robert Cole and Ryan Coogler discussing the origins and influence of the character, and the process of bringing him to the screen. This is a great exploration of how the character has evolved under various creators over the years, and includes some great Jack Kirby illustrations to demonstrate how striking T’Challa was when he first appeared in the mid-60’s.

The only downside to the current accelerated home video release schedule is that most of the features here were completed before the film’s release. That might make the participants’ memories of the film very fresh, but it doesn’t provide any context of the groundbreaking worldwide impact of the film, which is currently the third highest-grossing film in North America of all time. It would have been great to have a feature cover how audiences around the world have been moved and inspired by the film, or a feature exploring the roots and influence of afrofuturism. More than likely these are elements we’ll see in an eventual re-release down the line, but in the meantime this is the best way to take Wakanda home with you.