France’s Defense Minister Tweets Against Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever shows some of everyone’s favorite characters coming back to the screen for a thrilling yet saddening new story. Film director Ryan Coogler has once again done a fantastic job at showing the fictional nation of Wakanda as the country, and its royalty tries to battle hard against forces from other countries. European countries had a notorious reputation for invading African countries in the past and holding them hostage. Coogler shows similar themes in Black Panther. The creative decisions made by the director were not taken lightly by France’s defense minister.

Wakanda Vs France

Everyone knows and grieves the loss of the beautiful actor and human that was Chadwick Boseman. One of the most respectable things done by Black Panther: Wakanda Forever creators was honoring Chadwick’s legacy. In the film, Chadwick’s character T’challa has also passed away, and now the kingdom is bare and exposed to foreign threats without a king to protect them.

The film follows the story built in the earlier films where T’challa chose to open up Wakanda’s secrets to the whole wide world. Now, everyone knows of the massive Vibranium and technological reserves that the country has to offer. Invaders come along, trying to plunder and steal from the nation. The soldiers are portrayed as being from France, referencing past issues. This portrayal was not taken lightly by the defense minister of France, Sébastien Lecornu. He felt that the way France’s forces were shown in the film was wrong and inaccurate, to say the least.

“I strongly condemn this false and misleading representation of our Armed Forces. I think of and pay tribute to the 58 French soldiers who died defending Mali at its request against Islamist terrorist groups,” 

The defense minister paid his regards to the French soldiers, as seen in the tweet. The film did not have a very kind image painted of the same. The Black Panther films are known for being very culturally sensitive to the struggles of Africans and African Americans. Of course, director Coogler would not be so direct with his approach as if trying to accuse any nation of invasion. However, the mercenaries presented in the film wore uniforms similar to those of French armed forces back in the Gulf War of 1991. Was this a deliberate filmmaking choice or something that just happened to be?

The uniforms were first noticed by French journalist Jean Bexon. He said:

“In the latest American Marvel production (Black Panther Wakanda Forever), the evil French mercenaries operating in Mali are dressed as Operation Barkhane soldiers.”

The accusations of the journalist are on point. However, one must remember that even though the film is meant to represent real struggles, it is still a fictional work of art. However, the story remains sensitive to the issues. Mali was being harassed by terrorist forces when France was asked for assistance. The French were soon replaced by Russian mercenary groups back in 2002. Something sounds similar, does it not?

Either way, the film is now out and is being celebrated as a victory by many, both inside and outside of the film industry. The story also sees Letitia Wright’s character Shuri as well as Angela Bassett’s character Ramonda take the reigns after king T’challa has passed away to another realm. We also see a very important cameo that features Micheal B. Jordan’s Killmonger in the film. The film stars Tenoch Huerta as the famous Marvel character Namor who lives under the sea. A war between Namor and the Wakandans is inevitable, but who wins in the end? Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now streaming on Disney+