Just a day after we learned that Diane Lockhart is moving to DC, now comes word of another local pop-culture moment: Alexandria, Virginia, features in the new film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As Insider reports, the characters Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Okoye (Danai Gurira) travel to the DC suburb to seek out CIA officer Everett Ross (Martin Freeman).
The mention of Alexandria caused a bit of a stir at a preview screening Thursday night hosted by Councilman John Taylor Chapman’s Manumission Tour Company with Griffin Vision Media at the AMC Hoffman theater. There were about 500 people there, Chapman tells Washingtonian, including about 120 kids.
Though Chapman’s hosting duties kept him from watching the film (he plans to see it tonight), from conversations with people inside he understands the Alexandria on film doesn’t look much like the Alexandria where he lives. But, you know, close enough.
Oddly, Wakanda Forever is the second recent superhero film with an Alexandria connection: Wonder Woman 1984 filmed an extensive scene at the now demolished Landmark Mall, which the filmmakers restored to its ’80s glory.
While we had Chapman on the phone, we asked which superhero film he’d like to see in Port City next. Man of Steel 2 would be nice, he mused, or perhaps a Batman film. “Maybe Bruce Wayne has a distant cousin who lives in Alexandria—he’s living in Del Ray.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
