HOUSTON – Marvel comic’s newest superhero, "Black Panther," debuts this weekend and is expected to be a box office smash.
It's already breaking records with sold-out theaters across the country before its release.
"Black Panther" is also making a big milestone due to its cast.
The movie is being coined the first big budget film to have a black superhero.
“Just to be able to see a hero that looks like black and brown children, that's a turning point, that's a powerful, powerful message that's being sent on the big screen,” said Aswad Walker, who is a lecturer at the University of Houston, and associate director of the Texas Southern University Urban Research and Resource Center.
The movie’s director, lead actors, costume designer, and many other crew members are predominately black.
Walker said the movie helps break the stereotypes that have plagued Hollywood when it comes to the roles people of color play.
"To be able to see African countries, black people as leaders with agency with the ability to create and control, that's a powerful, powerful message,” said Walker.
The film is based on a man named T’Challa who goes back to his home of Wakanda after his father, the king, died.
The nation is a rich, powerful and technologically advanced African nation, to which he is to succeed the throne.
The movie dives into his battle of being a royal and superhero.
“It's great to finally have a movie with an all-black cast that isn't about something so negative as slavery ... or just, you know, the civil rights movie, it's about empowerment, it's about having fun,” said Achanti Johnson, a student at TSU.