Original subtitles

What can you tell us about the people who have just landed on this planet?

It used to be, when you looked at a movie or a TV show set in the future,

were no black people. Black people are just so absent in science fiction, and

it's a blind spot.

Black Panther was a massive moment in our culture. They thought it was going

make $700 million, but it actually made $1 .3 billion.

So it had a business impact, it had a community impact, it opened up doors.

It showed that these kinds of stories, looking at Black speculative fiction,

looking at Afrofuturism and Blacks in sci -fi, looking at horror, was also

highly profitable.

Sci -fi is really a conversation about our humanity and man's relationship to

technology and exploring other worlds.

It's really exciting to know that more Black -centric science fiction is making

its way onto the television screens finally.

Black people.

I've always loved science fiction and have always loved fantasy.

We just didn't know it. When you think of how broad that landscape is, to not

include every single individual that is participating in the

world, then it's a lie.

We have millions and millions of stories that need to be told and us

getting our due.

is literally just opening the gates for everyone else.

No!

When science fiction started off as a genre on television, you saw a world in

which black people did not exist.

So you saw a future.

that was void of black people.

There's a fantasy element to sci -fi, and so what you're saying is that when

imagine whatever world you're imagining, you don't want us there.

That's essentially what you're saying. I think it honestly gets back to how we

are viewed, and to a large extent, the limited

view on who we are as people.

and what we're capable of representing.

I grew up watching Lost in Space.

I remember saying to my parents, well, like, Mommy and Daddy, if we become

astronauts, we could be the first black family in outer space.

They were like, little girl, what are you talking about?

In early science fiction, you would probably see stories about aliens or

monsters.

Before you saw perspectives from Black people incorporated into the story. And

then when Black people were brought into the story, it was usually to make a

point about race or otherness. It reflected this concept of just not

Black people as people and as a part of broader humanity.

In the 1960s, as the nation is dealing with the socio and political unrest of

the time, writer -director Rod Serling decides to take unrest that the nation

was dealing with and package it in a sci -fi show, and he created The Twilight

Zone. In all this darkness, is there anybody who can make out the truth?

You know, the first time you really saw a black person on...

The Twilight Zone was Ivan Dixon, and he was in a famous episode called Color Me

Black about a sundown town.

The town, it went dark. They were going to hang a man for shooting his

bigoted white neighbor.

Do you know why there's night all around us?

Do you know what the blackness is?

It's the hate he felt.

The hate you felt, the hate all of us feel, and it's too much of it. It's just

too much.

The sun went down, and it never came up.

Even though The Twilight Zone didn't showcase black characters for the most

in that series, by 1967, it does change, and we're seeing more black performers

and characters on the network schedule.

You got to go all the way back to Eartha Kitt when she came on and took over the

role of Catwoman.

This is Catwoman.

In 1967, she's playing a reimagined version of a white character played by

Newmar.

You'll never have another Catwoman like that. I don't think anybody else's

tongue works like that. I don't care what you say.

It's not going to happen.

so amazing because all of a sudden there's a black woman that is fighting

wait a minute with eartha kitt's appearance on batman television

executives began to see what what blacks could bring to this world of science

fiction and we got to see more afterwards space the final frontier as

the 60s progressed the new frontier was being forged.

And one of those was Star Trek, developed and created by Gene

It's very serious.

Engage.

Star Trek was a landmark moment where we lived in this new egalitarian society,

and Gene Roddenberry talked about the idea of having a flight crew of

races. When I brought in a mixed racial crew, both the network and Desilu

Studios, which had it at that time, came in saying, what are you doing?

You're going to ruin us.

That was one of the

first.

I found myself in the sci -fi genre.

After the first season of Star Trek, Martin Luther King met with Nichelle

Nichols. She told him that she wanted to quit the show. So Martin Luther King

said, no, you can't quit.

He says, you have the first non -stereotypical role on television for

to see.

This is not a black role, and it's not a female role, and you've got it.

Nichelle Nichols, her character, as you hear, gave us Whoopi Goldberg. It gave

us LeVar Burton.

So it gave us black actors who were in the sci -fi genre.

I'm glad to hear it. I actually came into Star Trek in the next generation,

so LeVar Burton was the primary representation there, Geordi LaFord.

That is not right.

I was certain that...

Geordie LaForge and Lieutenant Commander Worf really were the brothers in Outer

Space.

Well, everyone's very curious about you.

It's how bad they are. I said to LeVar Burton, tell me I want to play, I want

play. So I go, and Gene Roddenberry says to me, okay, you have to explain this

to me. Why do you want to do this?

I said, Gene, do you know?

That before Lieutenant Uhura, black people didn't exist in the future.

I want to be that for somebody else.

That's the thing about legacy, is that you want to further it. You want to just

do your part to just put more steps down for anyone who may be coming after you.

All of you will go where no one has gone before, and you will make the path by

traveling it.

Star Trek meant that black people made it to the future. Because there's so

times that we don't make it. Not only do we make it to the future, we're

important. Diversity matters.

My powers are gone, Graham.

I can't do anything.

Historically, science fiction, it's always been told from an Eastern

lens.

Afrofuturism tells that same type of story.

However, the lens is that of somebody that is of African descent.

So in the mid -1990s, when Fox was still a fledgling network, one of its biggest

shows was The X -Files. But the leading show was a show called Mantis, which

starred Carl Lumley as the first black superhero on network television.

It was really groundbreaking to have a Black superhero on television.

And for many people, this was one of their first examples of Afrofuturism in

science fiction television.

They've been stung by a lantern.

Carl Lumley stars as this man who's been shot by the police.

Paralyzed, but builds an exoskeleton that gives him the ability to walk.

And with that ability comes for him the responsibility of fighting violence.

I'm Carl Lumlin, and I was television's first black superhero.

Didn't know it.

Assumed that there must have been another one, just, you know, one I

heard about.

You can go on destroying each other, or you can learn to live together.

Mantis was a pilot that celebrated black genius.

Two basic patents by the age of 15, millionaire at 18, MIT on a genius

Sam Hamm and Sam Raimi simply felt it was time for a black superhero.

At the time that I read the script, I thought, oh, this is first.

We'd never seen this before. We'd never seen a black superhero.

And what also blew me away is that he was also surrounded by

black people.

When I heard we were being picked up, I thought, oh, Magnificent will be picking

up where this story left off. And then I heard that Sam Hamm and Sam Raimi were

not actually going to be moving forward with it.

Sam Raimi is a very progressive guy.

You know, when he left the show, other people came in, and they jacked it up.

By the time it moved to series, the Africanization stopped.

Awesome idea, Doc, awesome.

All of the characters of color,

except me, were removed.

Well, even if this works and you do walk again, you'll still be the same SOB you

always were.

The excuse, reason that I was

given was that We're looking to appeal to a broader audience.

If Mantis in 1994 was given a chance to live as it was originally

conceived, then you would have told millions

of people, not just black people, that this

is also our world. And it would have normalized.

an entire genre and an entire way of being and an entire people.

The fact that he's young and black doesn't make him a junkie.

Even though Gina Torres didn't make it to the Mantis series, it really was just

the beginning of her sort of sci -fi legacy.

I watched her for a decade.

She's one of the people I like to say like raised me on television. I watched

her in Firefly when I was in high school.

I was watching her on Xena, on Hercules. I'm Nebula.

I fit in science fiction because I didn't fit anywhere else. The fact that

ethnically ambiguous to a lot of creators out there. Where I did fit

was in sci -fi.

I could be a stand -alone badass.

I don't think we notice when we're watching what it means that this is a

that has never been opened being open.

I'm going to take his queen, his knights, his rooks.

I'm knocking all those pieces off the board.

It was 22 years between Manta and Luke Cage.

When Luke Cage came to television in 2016, Mike Holter got the opportunity to

play the first black Marvel television superhero.

I mean, you got a black man that can't be shot.

Bullet can't pierce his skin.

That's a premise, y 'all.

I love Luke Cage's original name, Luke Cage Hero for Hire.

Because let's be real, I'm not doing all that for free.

When we were looking at the criminalization of wearing a hoodie, to

tell that story at that time, I think, was so impactful.

All of us saw what happened to Trayvon Martin, and then you saw Luke Cage

walking through, and he just was invincible.

And you're like, that's what we need.

It was the best kind of superhero you could have.

Usually it's set in Gotham, or it's in Manhattan, and to put it in Harlem.

That was genius, but also so necessary culturally.

Harlem is supposed to represent our hopes and dreams, the pinnacle of Black

art, politics, innovation.

It was hugely important that Luke Cage do well because it was not only just for

the show itself, but also for the future of other Black showrunners and other

Black creators to create a show that actually reflected their own vision.

It changed the industry in a major, major way. And the best part about it is

that Luke Cage was just the tip of the iceberg for what would come in the

After the success of Luke Cage, then DC said, oh, well, we should do one too.

They looked around and they were like, okay, we got Black Lightning.

They took the property and modernized it in really smart ways.

Cress Williams, who plays Black Lightning, was Scooter on Living Single.

So I get to watch Scooter save the world. And I love it. I love it. I love

What I love about getting this show on the air is that it's the first Black

family superhero show that's ever been on television.

By day, he's the principal of a high school, and by night, he is a crime

on the streets of Breland, married to a brilliant neuroscientist. Guess who that

is. They have two wonderful daughters who eventually take on some superpowers

their own and form a crime -fighting team.

It just crumbled in my hands like it was nothing.

Anissa, the older daughter, who is a fully out...

Gay character at the beginning of the show. I mean also groundbreaking that

would have an a black out character supported by her family

Not talked about not discussed not a plot point not a story point. She just

What's really cool is that comic book characters really kind of go one of two

routes when it comes to television, right? You have the live action success

Black Lightning, while some other comic book characters will go on to become

iconic animated series.

The 90s and early 2000s actually had a ton of very successful animated shows.

There was The Fantastic Four, there was Batman, Spider -Man, and there was

Superman.

But we really wouldn't see our first black animated superhero until we got

Static Shock.

Static Shock was about a blurt.

Now that was before blurt was even a term.

But he was a black nerd, he was smart, and he got superpowers.

There was an explosion last night. There was this gas.

It changed me, Richie.

Check it out.

Not only was it entertaining, you had this kid flying around on this sewer.

with this natural hair, but it also didn't shy away from things that we were

talking about and dealing with at the time. Everything from gang violence, gun

violence, homelessness, they were all baked into the fabric of the show.

You know, look, there was Peter Parker out there, but he was our version of

that. It also sounded and felt

Very much of black culture. The soundtrack was, like, very hip -hop

believe the theme song was by, like, Lil' Romeo.

It felt very black and very authentic.

The Black Panther was the

equivalent of Captain America.

Captain America is everything that's noble and pure and good about America.

The Black Panther is that for Africa.

God works through me the same as you.

There is no feat I can achieve that you are not capable of.

One time we were out at lunch and they said, Reggie, we should make a TV show

out of your Black Panther comic book. I said, oh yeah. That's not a bad idea.

And we put together the most amazing cast.

We had Jaiman Hansu, Alfre Woodard. We had Kerry Washington.

I mean, it was an all -killer cast.

And the show was a hit.

The success of the animated series helped lay the groundwork for the movie.

It is your time to be king.

It was the first superhero to make over a billion dollars at the box office.

So not only did it succeed, Black Panther is the most successful

Kids need to be able to see themselves represented as the main character in

animation that they're watching.

images become ingrained in how we form our opinions about what we're capable

Because if we see the black characters on screen now, that's going to inspire a

whole new generation of creators to come in and produce fantastic content that's

going to highlight black stories, black life, in horror, in sci -fi, and far

beyond.

Black characters are getting more of an opportunity to be well -rounded human

beings. They have backstory and they have full, well -rounded lives in and of

themselves. You finally figured out what it means to be alive.

Raising Dion was the number one kids and family show for Netflix globally in

2019.

It was a simple story about a mother caring about her son.

Leon!

You left school.

Don't be mad, Mom.

Get your stuff and get to the car.

Raising a young black man in today's environment who's a superhero at the

time. Time to clean up the neighborhood.

It's an awesome show for kids to see themselves in a magical way.

And even the actress going through the emotions of losing a husband and...

a father and that love and that connection and for kids to see that

Black love even in the supernatural.

It isn't true, is it?

You're just a figment in my head.

That's all there is left.

In the beginning, there might be one Black person in a sci -fi show,

and you most certainly

didn't ever see them at the center of that story.

And now with shows like Altered Carbon, I think that

black people are in the future in a way that we didn't see before.

Altered Carbon was really one of my favorite shows to direct.

I go to the show and I realize, oh my God, this show has...

three black leads in it. We have Anthony Mackie, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and

Simone Missick.

I don't know how we have these three amazing black leads in such an iconic

I don't want to walk into an ambush.

Got it. Things are definitely changing.

You're always paying for it, darling.

The difference is our costs are fixed and posted right there on the door.

You talk about my favorite science fiction show.

It would be Westworld. This pain.

The acting is so good.

It's all I have left on.

So Westworld is set up in this futuristic world where you have elite

people who get to live out their fantasies in this old West amusement

is populated by artificial intelligence.

Robots. But these robots are very human -like, and they stage an uprising.

I love that show because the hubris of wealthy humans, it

puts them in a situation where they get to run everything, and then let's be the

horror of that.

I think that is a perfect metaphor in some ways for what we're

always living in.

We have Handy Way, Jeffrey Ray, Tessa Thompson, amazing, amazing, super

Black actors who have characters that are so complex and fully realized. They

are not footnotes. They are not just sidekicks. To have so many Black talent

sharing the space and sharing the screen in a significant way was important,

particularly in a genre like sci -fi, where that hasn't traditionally been the

case. I was thinking about this the other day. I have three kids, ages 20,

and 24.

Their generation and even the younger generation have no idea the strides that

have been made. They watch something like Watchmen, and they see a female

in Regina King throwing down and being active and athletic and fighting and the

supernatural aspect of it all. I find joy when I see these projects taking

and I see different representation. It's a beautiful thing to see that.

Regina King plays this character, Angela, who is a cop by day, superhero

night, who's investigating this racist entity that's infiltrated

the city of Tulsa.

I was reading Ta -Nehisi Coates' writing, and he mentioned something in

of reparations in just one paragraph, which was the Tulsa race massacre.

And I couldn't believe that I did not know that this... horrific thing that

happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921, where all of the white citizens of Tulsa

basically destroyed this immensely affluent piece of black culture.

Damon Lindelof wasn't alone.

When The Watchman premiered, America was watching real events that happened in

American history that had all been erased from our education.

And most folks had no idea of the brutality that happened at the Tulsa

massacre. All of this played out not just in the ratings from the show, but

in the search results on that evening as folks tried to find out more about this

incredible event they knew nothing about.

Yeah, we've come a long way from, you know, from not being able to showcase

issues that happened to.

I mean, highlighting the shit out of them. And I think it's great for

television.

I think what happened very quickly was the writers in the Watchmen room were

sort of like, this is not about teaching you.

We are going to vigorously defend this material and make sure that you don't do

something harmful.

We generated this incredible television experience that was only authentic

because I shut up, because I ceded creative power, because I listened and

learned.

Well, these shows are resonating with so many people because they explore the

human experience.

As we're thinking about technologies, as we're reconciling with histories, we

see ourselves in these stories and these characters, and we're cheering them on.

So while Black characters in science fiction were now being celebrated,

genre is coming about, and that's horror.

Begin.

We're kind of getting to a place through black horror and black science fiction

to finally find a way to start to tell our stories in this format.

Did you see her, Mama?

No, I didn't see anything, baby.

But you found something, didn't you?

Unlike sci -fi, horror actually did embrace black characters a lot more

frequently, but they were often the first to die.

But then we see HBO's True Blood come out, and it was just a beacon of

representation left and right, and particularly for black characters.

Lafayette, gay black character in a fantasy setting?

I mean, come on, it's like my catnip.

To see Lafayette be gay and black and not die was actually a pretty

groundbreaking sight.

It was actually kind of revolutionary.

And we saw Regina Wesley.

Ain't you ashamed of yourself?

What'd you just say to me?

I think particular brand of cognac.

They're characters that...

started off in ways that could have totally been sidelined, and yet the show

embraced them, bringing them further and further into the narrative.

True Blood allowed the marginalization of vampires to serve as an avatar for

marginalization of LGBTQ and African Americans, people of color, and even the

marginalization within those communities.

You still ain't making me eat no AIDS burger.

All you gotta do is say, hold the AIDS here.

Eat it.

The Walking Dead was ushering in new black characters in a very cool way.

We can beat them.

Is this in the air?

It's like a play in defense.

So you're just going to take on all of them?

That was definitely a watershed moment with Danai playing that character.

and really shifting what some folks' idea of what a strong female character

could look like.

Thank God.

You know, people never really talked about the interracial relationships that

Michonne had with Rick Grimes, because who has time for racism? It's zombies.

I remember marveling about...

there being two black women in the core cast of this show and how amazing that

was.

We can take them.

Looks right.

Especially because they were not at odds with each other.

And because they were two completely different black women. That was huge.

All right, you all go home too.

I'll finish this one myself.

Angela Bassett played the revered voodoo priestess Marie Laveau.

Usually voodoo is completely villainized in most science fiction, and in this

one it was handled with an element of respect and certainly revered for a

character that many people didn't expect to see on screen.

She done messed with the wrong witch, and she knows it.

And now you know it.

Black Mirror is this exciting anthology series which pulls on both horror and

science fiction to create these stories in the not -so -far -off future.

When I think of Black Mirror, I think of really incredible performances by

Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Gugu Mbatha -Raw, Michaela Cole.

Black Mirror wasn't afraid to put black actors into the spotlight and show that

they could carry a sci -fi or a horror episode, and everyone would love it.

And one of the episodes within that series, Striking Vipers, unbelievable.

It was so good, starring Anthony Mackie, Yahya Abdul -Mateen, Nicole Beharie.

Are you seeing someone?

No.

No.

My jaw hit the floor and never got up.

Okay, this is some stuff, y 'all. No, no, no.

Two cis black straight men in their VR fantasies having a

full -on love relationship?

Mind blown. The subject matter alone is...

really exciting, and it does what science fiction is supposed to do, which

this is plausible.

Anytime we have an opportunity to see black actors in shows that are telling

stories that aren't the run -of -the -mill stereotypical stories, that helps

audience see us differently, embrace us differently. It helps networks and

studios realize that they can tell more unique stories and unique points of view

from black people.

The next thing we're going to do after the shot is the whole walkover.

Jordan Peele changed the game. He completely broke the door open, not only

black horror films and black sci -fi, but just black nerdiness in general.

We see TV shows blossoming that are dealing with these racial

traumas, looking at these tough histories.

As exemplified in the Twilight Zone reboot, in Them, in Underground

Railroad, where people are learning about history, but they're also

that, wow, these traumas are the basis of a horror that people have

Them was about this family that moved into this neighborhood, which was

predominantly white, did not want them there.

and tried their damnedest to drive them crazy to the point that they would

actually leave.

Now, how many of y 'all been in that situation?

Where you've been the black person in a predominantly white environment, and

they want you out.

I really enjoyed Lovecraft Country.

I have so much respect for it because it was weaving in that historical context

with the imaginative aspect of sci -fi. I just thought it was brilliant.

You don't get to see enough programs where you feel like it is a

of who we were at that time, where you saw middle class, African -American

people who had jobs and families and we had neighborhoods and everything was

together.

I will see you when you get back, Pop. You will, baby.

From there, you built in the terror of just being black at the time.

We're citizens.

You are veterans for God's sake.

Our money spends just as good as everyone else's.

Misha Green is a phenomenal writer and producer and storyteller.

Hopefully we will continue to see more narratives from her.

You know, Lovecraft Country got a lot of acclaim and attention.

I think so long as the shows continue to do well, I think that's going to bode

well for black creators.

I'm looking forward to more people coming into the horror and sci -fi space

giving us a vision of the future that incorporates all of us.

So don't say I didn't warn you.

We are now in the era of the modern day superhero.

The face of the genre continues to change with black people coming into

roles, this new power rising to save the day.

I'm a black man carrying the stars and stripes.

Every time I pick this thing up, I know there are millions of people out there

who are going to hate me for it.

in The Winter Soldier explores the evolution of Sam Wilson as he takes on

mantle of being the Falcon and ultimately evolves into becoming Captain

First time that you see Anthony Mackie put on the Captain America

uniform, there's something so special about it because it is

saying, I am America.

In the Marvel comic book, Sam Wilson has a moment where he becomes Captain

America. And a lot of fans never thought they would ever see that storyline on

television. It makes a statement about black superheroes, but it also makes a

statement about the contributions that black people have made to America.

I start thinking about all the little black girls and black boys who are going

to now be at home believing and seeing and tearing up furniture and jumping off

the stuff that they shouldn't because they saw Anthony Mackie as Captain

America. in America.

They erased me, my history, but they've been doing that

for 500 years.

Those of us who've been left out of the history books, who built the country,

like all of that was in that moment to me.

The Red Tails, the famous 332, fight for this country,

only to come home to find crosses burned on their lawn.

Carl Lumley is playing this character, Isaiah Bradley, who really represents

Anthony Mackie's history.

And Anthony Mackie's character is the dream.

It's like they're saying, you know, you are your ancestor's wildest dream.

That's who Anthony Mackie is in that moment, and I find it so powerful.

Everybody ready?

Yes, Captain.

Star Trek is one of the most popular franchises in science fiction history.

And now we have a black woman at the helm of the series, which is the

dream for a lot of fans.

Let's fly.

Sonequa Martin -Green currently stars as Captain Michael Burnham, and that makes

her the first black female captain to lead a television show. It would be

logical for you to take into account my success rate.

It took up until now for there to be the first lead role of a Black woman

in sci -fi with Sonequa Martin -Green taking up that position on Star Trek

Discovery. I am not the person who celebrates the first Black anything in

I'd be like, why did it take so long?

Why?

Ultimately, she deserves her flowers.

Don't get me wrong.

But I'm always just irritated by the fact that we're still having to break

ground in spaces where we were always valid.

When I think about the future of sci -fi, I think about a lot of these

black sci -fi writers who tell stories in a different way about the

future. It's really going to change the narrative of what...

the future could look like.

It's really exciting to see the celebrated books that are part of the

Afrofuturist canon are being adapted into screens big and small.

Octavia Butler's books are in the canon of sci -fi.

People all over the world are studying her work, and now they're being adapted

into television. They've been adapted into graphic novels, and now we're going

to see them in TV.

A lot of my early writing had to do with my own feelings of powerlessness.

There are no real walls around science fiction. We can build them, but they're

not there naturally.

She is most celebrated because she deals with these really tough, nuanced

questions around our future. People have looked to her to think about how you

create new futures.

And Kay Jemison is adapting her own book, The Inheritance Trilogy, into

television. I'm drawing on the human history of structural oppression, as

as my feelings about this moment in American history.

I looked at science fiction and fantasy as the aspirational drive of the

zeitgeist. We creators are the engineers of possibility.

I love that it's not just that we're seeing these Black stories, but we're

seeing these Black stories told by Black people. That is the key to the sort of

magic of it all.

I think one of the biggest things in the sort of evolution of black actors in

the sci -fi genre is that black actors are now front and center.

We're just authentically at the middle of stories just like anyone else.

We're in all of these places where folks may be thinking of the future, maybe

thinking of the past, seeing us saving the day, but also living in a world that

has extra powers in it, more myth around it.

It allows us to dream.

To continue to dream and to know that we're a part of the dream.

There is no end to this journey.

For our capacity for growth is infinite.