Black Panther (TV series)

Black Panther is an American motion comic    and television series by Marvel Knights Animation, based on the Marvel Comics superhero of the same name. It was the first animated television series produced by BET since Hey Monie!. Each of the six episodes of the series was 20 minutes in length.

The series was broadcast on the Australian children's channel ABC Me (formerly ABC3) in January 2010 and in the United States on BET in November 2011.

Plot
Upon becoming the new Black Panther after the assassination of his father T'Chaka, T'Challa deals with the jealousy in the Wakandan royal court while looking for the man who killed his father. Unbeknownst to Black Panther, Klaw (the man who assassinated T'Chaka) has assembled a group of villains consisting of Batroc the Leaper, Juggernaut, the Vatican Black Knight, and the Russian Radioactive Man to help him take over Wakanda.

Cast

 * Djimon Hounsou as T'Challa / Black Panther
 * Stan Lee as General Wallace
 * Kerry Washington as Princess Shuri
 * Alfre Woodard as Dondi Reese, Queen Mother, Dora Milaje
 * Carl Lumbly as Uncle S'Yan
 * Jill Scott as Storm
 * Stephen Stanton as Ulysses Klaue

Additional voices

 * Jonathan Adams as T'Chaka
 * JB Blanc as Black Knight, Male Cannibal, Batroc the Leaper
 * David Busch as Everett K. Ross
 * Taye Diggs as Historical Black Panther #2
 * Phil LaMarr as T'Shan
 * Peter Lurie as Juggernaut
 * Phil Morris as W'Kabi
 * Vanessa Marshall as Dora Milaje, Female Cannibal
 * Nolan North as Cyclops, Nightcrawler
 * Adrian Pasdar as Captain America
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as Wolverine, Historical Black Panther #1
 * Rick D. Wasserman as Radioactive Man

Production
At a presentation held in New York City in April 2008, BET announced that it had signed a deal with Marvel Comics to turn Black Panther into a primetime half-hour animated series. In July 2008 at the San Diego Comic-Con International, the first footage of the series was shown publicly, indicating that the series was essentially just motion comic versions of the mini-series released by Marvel Comics.

The show was supervised by Reginald Hudlin (President of Entertainment at BET), Eric S. Rollman (President of Marvel Animation) and John Romita, Jr., writer and artist, respectively, of the story arc of the Black Panther comic entitled "Who is the Black Panther?", on which the first six episodes were based. Only subtle deviations from the comic exist, such as replacing Rhino with Juggernaut.

Djimon Hounsou was cast to voice T'Challa/Black Panther. The series was directed by Mark Brooks and Jon Schnepp. Jon Schnepp co-directed and edited episodes 4 & 5 of the 6 episode animated motion comic series. The theme song was composed by Stephen James Taylor in a dialect meant to be Wakandan (the fictional character's native language). In reality, the song employed a Bantu-based language of Taylor's creation.

Australia
Magna Pacific released the series in region 4. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on December 1, 2010.

United States
On January 18, 2011, the series was released to Region 1 DVD by Shout! Factory. It was part of the Marvel Knights Animation line, the line reserved for Marvel's motion comics.

Streaming
On March 16, 2018, the entire series was released through Marvel's YouTube channel for free as Marvel Knights Animation - Black Panther.