There Will Be More Of ‘Us’

With ‘Us’ dominating the box office opening weekend with 70 million we can’t help but call out the correlation between the new age of Black femme empowerment and the increase in the amount of Black women we’re seeing kicking ass on screen. We predict a steady rise in leading roles in both the sci-fi and horror genre played by Black femme actresses. Hopefully this will also impact the average salary. 

However, we’re not new to this. Black people have long been aware of our versatility. The work of pioneering Black women like Nichelle Nichols who played Lt. Nyota Uhura on Star Trek and author Octavia Butler who breathed life into Afrofuturism, making way for the roles we get to champion today. 

Black Panther and Us have both succeeded with box office success in their genres of horror and science fiction worldwide. Not only were both of these films written, directed and starred POC, they also shared lead actress, Lupita Nyongo. Who is blazing trails in the genre and dismantling the idea that Black woman are monolithic.