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Black Panther is getting a special spot at the Smithsonian, the museum announced ahead of the sequel's box office premiere.
The Black Panther suit worn by late actor Chadwick Boseman in the 2018 Marvel film will be on full display at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C this spring, WUSA 9 reports.
Boseman's suit will be featured in the museum's "major, thought-provoking" exhibition, "Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures," which will be unveiled on March 24, 2023. The Smithsonian acquired the iconic costume, a script signed by Ryan Coogler, along with other memorabilia from the film.
Boseman, who died from colon cancer at 43 in 2020, starred as the Marvel franchise's Black Panther, a character that first made its historic debut in a July 1996 comic, according to the University Libraries at Washington University in St. Louis.
"Black Panther is the first superhero of African descent to appear in mainstream American comics, and the film itself is the first major cinematic production based on the character," the museum said in a statement.
In 2018, Coogler helped bring the first black superhero in U.S. comic-book history to the big screen, directing the Black Panther film.
The blockbuster's sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, premiered on Friday (November 11).
"Black Panther illustrates the progression of blacks in film, an industry that in the past has overlooked Blacks, or regulated them to flat, one-dimensional and marginalized figures. The film, like the museum, provides a fuller story of Black culture and identity," NMAAHC said in a press release.
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