France Accuses Black Panther of Misrepresenting its Army in Africa

On Sunday, February 12, 2023, Paris’ defence minister strongly condemned the latest instalment of Marvel’s Black Panther franchise, which depicts French troops caught trying to steal resources belonging to the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda. “I strongly condemn this false and deceptive representation of our armed forces,“ Sebastien Lecornu wrote on Twitter, responding to a clip from the November movie posted by a journalist. The minister is concerned that the depiction of France in the movie as colonialists, particularly the depiction of its soldiers as thieves, and the impact this would have on its perception in Africa. The controversial scene in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, released on November 11, 2022, depicts a group of bound French soldiers being brought into a UN meeting and embarrassing Paris’ ambassador to the world body after they were caught on a secret mission to a Wakandan base in Mali. The soldiers are marched into the UN meeting by the Dora Milaje, Wakanda’