China could ban Black Panther: Wakanda Forever from releasing in cinemas around their country.
Expected to be one of the biggest and most successful movie releases of 2022, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is unlikely to be released to audiences in China.
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The movie has been highly rated by critics and has been described as a 'beautiful tribute' to the memory of T'Challa actor Chadwick Boseman, who sadly died from cancer in 2020.
And Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has already suggested that a third film is in the works to continue the stories of Wakanda and the Black Panther, but there's one big audience which is unlikely to see them.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Black Panther sequel is set to be banned from the second biggest theatrical market in the world.
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The first Black Panther movie pulled in a box office haul of $105 million on the Chinese market back in 2018, but the second one runs the risk of never releasing at all.
It would follow the recent trend of Marvel movies not being given permission to screen in Chinese cinemas.
All of the MCU's 'phase four' films, that is to say Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder, have failed to get the green light to be released in China.
The reasons for these rejections have been varied, with some films being banned for comments made by those involved in the movies which were accused of criticising China and others for featuring LGBTQ+ characters.
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The latest Spider-Man was seemingly banned because it too prominently featured the Statue of Liberty and was deemed to be 'too patriotic' towards the US.
Thor: Love and Thunder was banned for containing references to a gay relationship and a character being bisexual, and it seems as though Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has fallen foul of the same reasoning.
The newly released movie features a relationship between two warrior women who form part of Wakanda's elite Dora Milaje bodyguards.
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Aneka (Michaela Coel) and Ayo (Florence Kasumba) are shown to be in a relationship in the film, as they are in the comics, and it is seemingly for this reason that the Black Panther sequel has been shunned.
Movie studios have in the past diminished or cut references to gay characters in their movies in the past so they can release the films in China, though in recent years, Disney has not done this to get their films approved in international markets.
Another movie that might be unlikely to end up in the Chinese market is DC superhero flick Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson as Pierce Bronsan supposedly met with the Dalai Lama.
Topics: Black Panther, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Film and TV, LGBTQ, China
Joe Harker