Black Panther’s time has come. After years of waiting, there’s only four months left until Marvel's king of Wakanda debuts in his own live-action film. With several multimedia projects in the pipeline -- a digital series, a movie prequel comic, a LEGO special and a season of the animated Avengers Assemble -- the sky is seemingly the limit for the hero. But there’s still one platform he's yet to make his mark on: video games.
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Superheroes and video games have long been intimate partners, although their track record has been undeniably spotty. It's been only fairly recently that there have been consistently great titles, albeit starring DC Comics characters, such as Arkham and Injustice. Marvel, on the other hand, has largely stuck to three types of video games: movie tie-ins, mobile games and LEGO, occasionally with them intersecting. In January, Marvel and Square Enix announced a partnership that spans several years and covers multiple games. With that in mind, Black Panther should be a priority for that collaboration.
It goes without saying a Black Panther video game could capitalize on anticipation for the upcoming feature film, which is responsible for significantly raising the hero's profile. With another Marvel hero, such as Spider-Man or the Avengers, there are certain expectations; a Spider-game must have web-slinging on par with 2004's Spider-Man 2, and an Avengers title must have the Marvel Cinematic Universe roster. Black Panther has no such expectations, providing the developer with more creative freedom.
Black Panther is an Avenger, yes, but he’s much more than that. He’s a king, and a diplomat whose actions quite literally speak for an entire nation. Even within his home nation Wakanda, his presence during any situation speaks volumes, and he lacks the anonymity of a Batman or Spider-Man. Black Panther already had a reputation before T’Challa assumed the matle. In the form of a game, that kind of powerful reputation offers plenty of drawbacks, most noticeably when enemies are constantly gunning for you in the vein of Shadow of War. And just as it’s fun to take down stupidly overconfident enemies in the Arkham games, it would be a delight to thrash opponents who think they can take on the Black Panther.
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Afrofuturism is something that’s rarely, if ever been explored in games, much less the AAA space. In open-world games, the most common settings -- barring the Assassin’s Creed titles -- have all pulled from iconic locations such as New York or Los Angeles, places that are instantly recognizable, but offer little in the way of variety. As the recent trailer for Black Panther demonstrates, Wakanda defies expectations, and possesses advanced technology that puts anything the United States is working on to shame. The AAA games industry overall doesn’t really tackle cultures that aren’t American or Euro-centric, and while a Black Panther game wouldn't fix all those problems, it would at least shake things up.
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With Black Panther, the only expectation for a game is basically that it be set primarily, but not necessarily exclusively,in Wakanda, and it’s easy to see why. Using T’Challa’s home as a setting allows for a lot more freedom because of its scope; as a large, African nation, there’s still plenty of area that hasn’t been depicted in the comics or the film that an open-world game could cover. Much like how Horizon Zero Dawn or The Witcher III covered other cultures and tribes over the course of their respective games, a Black Panther game can follow suit. Ubisoft recently announced a Tourism mode for Assassin’s Creed Origins that offers historical information on their rendition of Egypt -- such a feature would be invaluable for a game centered on the history of Wakanda.
Black Panther is a character who doesn’t really have limits; one moment, he’s a king who’s also a superhero, the next he’s part of a secret society and debating the ethics of destroying other universes. If Marvel and a game developer wanted to go for broke, they could easily follow up on a comic thread that’s been simmering in the background for a few years now: Wakanda’s expedition to the stars seeded at the end of Secret Wars. The last time it was truly touched upon was in Marvel Legacy #1, in which we saw the planet Bast, throne world for the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda. T’Challa’s current seires keeps him on Earth, and it doesn’t look like it’ll be straying from that anytime soon. But allowing players to lead Wakanda in forming a galactic empire would be pretty awesome.
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However, maybe it’s asking too much for just one Black Panther game. In any case, he does deserve a game devoted all to himself. He has more potential for a solo game than many other Marvel characters, and the typical slate of Spider/Avengers/X games won’t be enough. Much as it's done with its cinematic universe, Marvel needs to open itself up to new characters. If you asked fans, they’d likely tell you they’re more excited for Black Panther than for Avengers: Infinity War. If fans are going to line up for that movie -- and going by social media, they absolutely are -- they’d also show up for his video game.
Opening Feb. 16, 2018, director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, with Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Florence Kasumba, Sterling K. Brown and John Kani.