Black Panther’s suit is coming to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Photo by Matt Kennedy)
The National Museum of African American History and Culture announced Wednesday it had acquired items from Marvel’s Black Panther, including the suit worn by star Chadwick Boseman in the 2018 blockbuster.
The acquisition also includes a copy of the film’s script signed by director and co-writer Ryan Coogler, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, executive producer Nate Moore, and co-writer Joe Robert Cole. Two pages of the spec script (the script that is written before it is optioned for a film) and 24 production photos round out the collection.
In an initial statement Wednesday, the museum wrote that the items would go on display October 24-27, during the museum’s inaugural African American Film Festival, and that it is considering further plans for permanent display. But that plan seemed to be in flux. NMAAHC publicist Lindsey Koren told DCist on Thursday that any display of the items all plans to show the items publicly were under consideration, and that a decision would likely be made this week.
In a September 2017 interview with DCist, NMAAHC director Lonnie Bunch described the museum’s collection strategy, saying his team acquires items “today for tomorrow”:
First of all, part of the museum’s job is to collect today for tomorrow, so that there are things—like we’ve collected Black Lives Matter artifacts, we’ve collected things in Ferguson, things in Baltimore—and some of those are on display in the museum. Some maybe won’t be in display until a curator 30, 40, or 50 years from now wants to use it. Our goal is to make sure that it never happens, like it used to happen early in my career—there were exhibits I wanted to do, stories I wanted to tell, and museums didn’t have those collections. I wanted to make sure that future curators wouldn’t have that problem.
Should the items go on display, expect turnout to be high: Black Panther is now the third highest-grossing movie of all time.
The movie’s star, Boseman, is a graduate of Howard University. He spoke at the school’s 2018 commencement ceremony where he gave the “Wakanda Forever” salute.
Lori McCue