Marvel's newest Black Panther series, Sins of the King, recently premiered on Serial Box, just in time for Black History Month. The new audio-comic follows in the other Marvel series' footsteps that have been laying the groundwork on Serial Box, which include Thor: Metal Gods, Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire, and Black Widow: Bad Blood.
As Marvel has released these series over the past two years, we have been bringing you our chats with the creative writing teams behind the shows and the voice actors involved. In support of Black Panther: Sins of The King, we have several interviews and clips from upcoming episodes on the way.
We started by speaking with Mohale Mashigo (Kwezi, The Yearning), a prominent South African singer, songwriter, and novelist. Mashigo wrote the fifth, sixth, and ninth episodes of the new series, so we did our best to avoid spoilers while chatting about the exciting new show.
Here, we focus on the women of Wakanda, Mashigo's introduction to comics, collaborating with the team on an audio-comic narrative, and how she became involved with Kwezi, the first South African super-hero. Listen to what Mohale has to say in the exclusive clip from our interview below, or scroll down for a portion of the transcript.
"I arrived right at the end when they had already had the writers' room fleshing the story out, but it was really cool to jump on and see what everybody had been working on because they said Black Panther, and of course, I love Black Panther, but I didn't know what the angle was. And once I'd seen what they had fleshed out, I was really, really excited because Rudyarda was involved. And, of course, it's got a little bit of a South African background. It's got all of these Africans, South Africans who moved there and oppressed the people there. So I was like, 'yes, I have a little bit of experience with this story. I know what's going on.' So I was excited that that was included.
I've always been interested in the women of Wakanda. I mean, if there's a comic book, I want to know 'where are the women, what are they doing? What parts are they playing?' So there was an outline of what should happen. And it just naturally happened that way. I just felt such a strong connection with queen Ramonda because she's also a South African, and Shuri's one of my favorites. So I wanted to make sure that I did her justice as well. So, in the outline, it had what was going on, but it was up to me to sort of flesh it out. And that's just how it played itself out that I focused on the women of the story."
What are your thoughts on Mohale's comments? Stay tuned for more exclusive chats and clips from upcoming episodes of Black Panther: Sins of The King this week, and be sure to check out episode one below!
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
The Black Panther has a terrible secret. T'Challa strives for excellence—to be a fair and worthy king, a global citizen, an Avenger. But when an army of undead threatens Wakanda, The Black Panther turns to his long-lost father in the fight against his most lethal opponent yet—the demons of his past.
Check out Black Panther: Sins of The King on Serial Box.