'Black Panther' Featurette Welcomes You To Wakanda As Part Of The Film's Oscar Campaign

Marvel and Disney want Black Pantherto land some Oscar nominations, and they're not being shy about it. As we head into Oscar season, the studios have already begun the process of campaigning for the film, including hosting new screening for prospective voters. They've also just released a featurette called "Welcome to Wakanda", where director Ryan Coogler and the cast discuss the film's "utopian vision of what an uncolonized Africa might look like." Watch the Black Panther featurette below.

It's awards season, and Black Panther stands a real chance at landing some Oscar gold. The film is still riding a wave of great buzz, having garnered fantastic reviews and even more fantastic box office, and it recently picked up nominations from the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards and the Critic's Choice Awards. Now, as 2018 draws to a close and Oscar season heats up, Disney and Marvel are making sure Academy voters don't forget how special the film is.

This "Welcome to Wakanda" featurette isn't exactly new – parts of it appear on the Black Panther Blu-ray. But for viewers who have yet to grab the Blu-ray, or watch its special features, this provides an excellent illustration of how much work Coogler and company did to make Wakanda seem like a real place. Coogler describes Wakanda as a fantasy of what Africa could be if "people had control over their own resources."

"We had to build a world, build a culture that people believed in," adds star Chadwick Boseman.

Executive Producer Nate Moore goes on to say that one of the most important things in crafting the film was to make Wakanda seem like "a real place on earth" and not "some fantasy land."

Will all this attention to detail pay off in Oscar noms? We'll know for sure when the nominations are announced next month on January 22, 2019.

BLACK PANTHER is director Ryan Coogler's take on a modern African hero and a utopian vision of what an uncolonized Africa might look like. The film explores the conflict between two powerful men, one African and one African-American, who are mirror images of each other, each grappling with his own history, home and very identity. When Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becomes king of the hidden, technologically advanced kingdom Wakanda, he is forced to defend his throne against rogue mercenary Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). Wakanda is also alive with strong, intelligent women—led by Danai Gurira and Lupita Nyong'o, to T'Challa's tech-savvy sister (Letitia Wright) and mother (Angela Bassett)—who are portrayed as equals to the men they protect and advise.