On April 27 and 28, 2026, I organized an exhibit highlighting “The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda.” The exhibit featured visual panels and curated selections based on my book
Writing Black Panther, specifically the closing chapter entitled “Star Wars for Black People.” The storyline stands out for its epic scope, imaginative reach, and its rare commitment to placing a wide range of Black characters at the center of a sprawling science fiction universe.
The phrase “
Star Wars for Black People” comes from Steven Thrasher, who used it to describe the scale and cultural significance of the
Black Panther film. The phrase proves just as fitting for Coates’s comic book storyline, where Wakanda expands beyond Earth into a vast intergalactic empire.
Coates’s “The Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda” unfolds as a story of political conflict, interstellar travel, revolutionary struggle, and large-scale world-building. It is one of the relatively few works in popular culture to imagine outer space populated by a large and varied cast of Black characters. This alone marks a significant departure from many mainstream science fiction traditions, where Black presence has often been limited or peripheral.
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| from Black Panther #1 (2018) |
Visually and conceptually, the storyline draws on Afrofuturist aesthetics—the blending of Black history, culture, and speculative futures. The narrative incorporates references to Maroons, Maasai, Zulu, and Mackandal, connecting Wakanda’s intergalactic reach to histories of resistance and survival across the African diaspora. These references expand the meaning of Wakanda, linking it not only to a fictional nation but to a broader history of global Black movement, struggle, and continuity.
The scale of the storyline becomes especially clear in issues #24 and #25, which bring together an extraordinary range of Black superheroes, including T’Challa, Storm, Falcon, Misty Knight, Luke Cage, Zenzi, and Manifold. The result is something akin to a large-scale crossover event, an “Endgame for Black people,” where multiple figures converge within a shared narrative universe.
Star Wars for Black People was designed to invite viewers and readers to consider what it means to imagine Black life, history, and possibility on an epic, intergalactic scale. In doing so, it highlights how Coates’s work extends the boundaries of both superhero comics and Afrofuturist storytelling, offering a vision of Black presence that is expansive, interconnected, and undeniably central.
