BY NAN STAFF WRITER
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Nov. 14, 2022: Caribbean and Latin American fans globally are beaming with pride at the spotlight placed on the regions in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,’ as well as the number of actors featured who were born in those regions or with roots there, as the film hit theaters for its mega opening weekend Friday.
The film features two Caribbean born actors who play lead roles in the movie as well as the addition of a Caribbean American actress who plays the Marvel Comics superhero Riri Williams/Ironheart.
Guyana-born Letitia Wright returns with a stunning performance as Princess Shuri and becomes the Black Panther for a short time in the movie; while Tobago-born Winston Duke returns as a more commanding presence in the character of M’Baku.
Dominique Thorne, who was born in New York to parents Nerissa Guy and Navie Guy, who are Trinidadian immigrants, joined the film as Williams, a MIT scientist whose innovation is being used to steal the resources of the Mayan people who were forced underwater after the colonialists came.
The film also features a song from Caribbean born singer, Rihanna as well as a spotlight on Cap-Haitien, Haiti and the famous Tap Tap, as well as scenes that were shot in Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Given the conflict in Haiti currently being raged by gangs, the film is a welcome relief to Haitians globally as the movie also celebrates their hero, François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, the leader of the Haitian Revolution by naming the son of the late King T Challa after him.
The Latin American cast includes Mexican born actor Tenoch Huerta, who stars as the movie’s villain, Namor the Sub-Mariner, who leads his blue-skinned, water-breathing people on an invasion of the futuristic country of Wakanda; Mabel Cadena, 32, who was born in Mexico and is featured in the smaller role of Namor’s cousin, a warrior character named Namora and of course Lupita Nyong’o, the Academy Award winning actress who was born in Mexico City to Kenyan parents and returns as Nakia.
The film does a phenomenal job of bringing the cultures of Africa, Latin America, the US and the Caribbean together in an obvious fight against colonization – old and new.
“While we are witnessing the birth of the 1st Black superhero of the modern age on screen, we the people of Haiti, the 1st Black Republic, are debating in real life if we should invite the colonizers back to “save” us after they done stealing our future,” Jean Jacques Dessalines wrote on Twitter.
“Watching Wakanda forever as a Mexican person in Mexico was such a fun experience, especially when namor and the talokan tribe wiped out the Spanish colonizers and the audience clapped and laughed while the hacienda burned down,” added jsi⁷🌊 slow.
