The Black Panther Controversy: What Does Skin Tone Mean for Representation?

After the Shocking Death of Chadwick Boseman on 28th of August 2020 Marvel has held off talking about recasting anyone for the spot of T’Challa as Black Panther. However rumours have begun to Surface that the higher ups at Marvel Studios are really considering Recasting the iconic role of Black Panther’s King T’Challa and if these rumours are believed to have any strong foundation this will cause allot of controversy.

Now many people are asking how will they introduce this new Black Panther into the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) after in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever King T’Challa passes away due to an Illness of which is not specified and so its unlikely they will raise him from the dead. However, Marvel has now introduced the Multiverse, where we have seen multiple different Spider-Men in No way home and Doctor Strange and American Chavez traveling the multiverse In Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness. This opens up the option to introduce a different Black Panther by bringing him in from a different Universe.

Now the controversy that has already started to brew is not about bring back the iconic character but, it is about the shade of Black the new actor may be. In a day and age where certain phone cameras change the skin tone of a dark skinned person making their skin shade brighter toned without their consent and darker skinned black people receiving less representation in Hollywood. Replacing characters who are normally dark skinned with actors who are light skinned black person still encourages the narrative that lighter is better and so when these major Film studios replace characters who are normally darker skinned people with lights skinned actors it feel as though that colourism is still prevalent within these Studios that claim to be inclusive.

Now this is not the first time that people have been angry with studios with their decision to hire light skinned actors for characters that have been established as dark skinned since their inception. For example, when Fox hired Halle Berry to portray Storm In the X-Men movies or recently when DC Studios Casted Aaron Pierre for the iconic character of John Stewart the Green Lantern, all of these casting brought up the conversation for when will studios start hiring Dark skinned actors for characters that where made that way and will Marvel Studios be front runners in that charge.