''Black Panther'' is an American

motion comic A motion comic (or animated comic) is a form of animation combining elements of print comic books and animation. Individual panels are expanded into a full shot while sound effects, voice acting, and animation are added to the original artwork. Tex ...

and

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

by Marvel Knights Animation, based on the

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...

superhero of the same name. It was the first animated television series produced by BET since '' Hey Monie!''. Each of the six episodes of the series was 20 minutes in length. The series was broadcast on the Australian children's channel

ABC Me ABC Me (stylised as ABC ME) is an Australian English language children's free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was officially launched by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 4 December 2009 as ABC3. Hist ...

in January 2010 and in the United States on BET in November 2011.

Plot

Upon becoming the new Black Panther after the assassination of his father

T'Chaka T'Chaka is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is the father of T'Challa and Shuri. He was the king of Wakanda and Black Panther before T'Challa; he inherited both titles following the death of h ...

, T'Challa deals with the jealousy in the

Wakanda Wakanda () is a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Wakanda has been depicted as being in East Africa. It is located in sub-Saharan Africa, and is home to the superhero Black Panther (comics), Black Pa ...

n royal court while looking for the man who killed his father. Unbeknownst to Black Panther, Klaw (the man who assassinated T'Chaka) has assembled a group of villains consisting of

Batroc the Leaper Georges Batroc the Leaper (french: Batroc le Sauteur) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in ''Tales of Suspense' ...

, Juggernaut, the Vatican

Black Knight The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...

, and the Russian Radioactive Man to help him take over Wakanda.

Cast

Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...

as T'Challa / Black Panther * Stan Lee as General Wallace * Kerry Washington as Princess Shuri * Alfre Woodard as Dondi Reese,

Queen Mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also u ...

, Dora Milaje *

Carl Lumbly Carl Winston Lumbly (born August 14, 1951) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Dick Hallorann in '' Doctor Sleep'', NYPD detective Marcus Petrie on the CBS police drama ''Cagney & Lacey'', CIA agent Marcus Dixon on the ABC esp ...

as Uncle S'Yan * Jill Scott as

Storm A storm is any disturbed state of the natural environment or the atmosphere of an astronomical body. It may be marked by significant disruptions to normal conditions such as strong wind, tornadoes, hail, thunder and lightning (a thunderstorm), ...

Stephen Stanton Stephen Walter Stanton (born August 22, 1961) is an American voice actor and visual effects artist. His roles include Sasha Nein in ''Psychonauts'' and ''Psychonauts 2'', Grand Moff Tarkin in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, Admiral Raddus in ''Rogu ...

as Klaw

Additional voices

* Jonathan Adams as

* JB Blanc as

, Male Cannibal,

* David Busch as Everett K. Ross * Taye Diggs as Historical Black Panther #2 *

Phil LaMarr Phillip LaMarr (born January 24, 1967) is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. LaMarr was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV''. His voice acting roles in animated series include J ...

as T'Shan * Peter Lurie as Juggernaut * Phil Morris as W'Kabi * Vanessa Marshall as Dora Milaje, Female Cannibal *

Nolan North Nolan North (born October 31, 1970) is an American actor best known for his voice acting roles. After his breakthrough role as Dr. Chris Ramsey on the ABC soap opera '' Port Charles'' in 1997, North moved into voice acting when the show ended ...

as Cyclops, Nightcrawler * Adrian Pasdar as Captain America * Kevin Michael Richardson as

Wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

, Historical Black Panther #1 * Rick D. Wasserman as Radioactive Man

Production

At a presentation held in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in April 2008, BET announced that it had signed a deal with Marvel Comics to turn Black Panther into a primetime half-hour animated series. In July 2008 at the

San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...

, the first footage of the series was shown publicly, indicating that the series was essentially just

versions of the mini-series released by Marvel Comics. The show was supervised by Reginald Hudlin (President of Entertainment at BET), Eric S. Rollman (President of Marvel Animation) and John Romita, Jr., writer and artist, respectively, of the

story arc A story arc (also narrative arc) is the chronological construction of plot in a novel or story. It can also mean an extended or continuing storyline in episodic storytelling media such as television, comic books, comic strips, board games, vid ...

of the Black Panther comic entitled "Who is the Black Panther?", on which the first six episodes were based. Only subtle deviations from the comic exist, such as replacing Rhino with Juggernaut.

was cast to voice T'Challa/Black Panther. The series was directed by Mark Brooks and

Jon Schnepp Jonathan David Schnepp (May 16, 1967 – July 19, 2018) was an American producer, director, voice actor, editor, writer, cartoonist, animator, and cinematographer. Schnepp was known for the documentary film '' The Death of "Superman Lives": What ...

. Jon Schnepp co-directed and edited episodes 4 & 5 of the 6 episode animated motion comic series. The theme song was composed by

Stephen James Taylor Stephen James Taylor (born 28 September 1954) is an American composer best known for his film and TV scores with four Emmy nominations, two Annie nominations, and a DVD-X Award on "Best Original Score (for a DVD Premiere Movie) to date ('05). ...

in a dialect meant to be

n (the fictional character's native language). In reality, the song employed a Bantu-based language of Taylor's creation.

Episodes

Media releases

Australia

Magna Pacific released the series in region 4. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 1, 2010.

United States

On January 18, 2011, the series was released to Region 1 DVD by Shout! Factory. It was part of the Marvel Knights Animation line, the line reserved for Marvel's motion comics.

Streaming

On March 16, 2018 (after the film version released in one month), the entire series was released through Marvel's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel for free as ''Marvel Knights Animation - Black Panther''.

References

External links

* * {{BET Black Panther (Marvel Comics) in other media 2010s American adult animated television series 2010s American black cartoons 2010s American science fiction television series 2011 American television series debuts 2011 American television series endings American action adventure television series American adult animated action television series American adult animated adventure television series American adult animated superhero television series American flash adult animated television series English-language television shows BET original programming Marvel Animation Adult animated television shows based on Marvel Comics