I miss the Black Panther press tour. I didn’t realize how much I missed it until last night when Chadwick Boseman, Michael Bae Jordan and Winston Duke were reunited to represent the film at the MTV Movie and TV Awards. 

Look, a colourful array of snacks! 

Winston Duke is wearing the full Nigerian World Cup tracksuit and now I want one. My family in Ghana will disown me for wearing it but I don’t care. It’s too good. Gimme. 

Aside from accepting Best Movie as a trio, Winston took a backseat to his co-stars, Chadwick and MBJ, the hero and villain of Black Panther. They each took home the awards for Best Hero and Best Villain respectively. I’ll come back to their memorable acceptance speeches. My favourite thing about the Black Panther press tour which became apparent again last night was how close this cast clearly is. Chadwick and Michael are friends. You could see their comradery every time Chadwick passed by Michael B. Jordan to accept an award and they bro-hugged. You could tell when Chadwick accepted his award for Best Performance in a Movie and shouted out MBJ with, “you can’t be a good hero without a good villain.” 

In return, in his acceptance speech, Michael Bae Jordan had a playful message for Chadwick’s fans. 

“Oh, and one more thing: Chadwick Boseman personally asked me to ask y’all to stop asking him to say ‘Wakanda forever.’ “Y’all taking the ‘forever’ thing a little too seriously.” 

HA. 

Last month, I wrote about Chadwick’s seeming exasperation with doing the Wakanda salute. The Internet decided he was over it. I decided it was more complicated than that. It may just be easier to retire the salute altogether than to dictate when and where fans can respectfully approach Chadwick and ask him to do it. I don’t know if it went down exactly how MBJ says it did though. I doubt Chadwick said, “Hey Mike, can you tell these fools to stop making me do the salute?” MBJ has probably seen the memes. He’s also been the recipient of awkward requests to do the salute. Why would you ask Killmonger to proclaim “Wakanda Forever?” Are you dumb? 

WE WILL NOT HAVE IT. *M’Baku voice*

The interaction between Chadwick and MBJ was my favourite Black Panther moment from last night’s show but they’re both getting attention this morning for other parts of their acceptance speeches. 

When Chadwick accepted his award for Best Hero, he surprised real-life hero James Shaw Jr by giving him his award. James is known as the Waffle House Hero because he disarmed a gunman in Tennessee, saving lives. It took 22 days for Klan President to call James and thank him for his service. Do you think it would have taken less time if he was white? The important thing is that James Shaw Jr. IS a hero and he’s getting the shine he deserves. 

“Receiving an award for playing a superhero is amazing, but it’s even greater to acknowledge the heroes we have in real life.”

Yep, in case you were wondering, Chadwick Boseman is still perfect. 

Michael Bae Jordan may have been accepting an award for best villain but the first quip out of his mouth was damn-near heroic. 

“I’m shocked that I won this award for Best Villain. I thought for sure Roseanne had that in the bag.” 

I stan a witty King with common enemies. I appreciate that he consistently proves me right about him. I’ll leave you with the night’s host, Tiffany Haddish, on why Roseanne is just as villainous as MBJ made her out to be. Tiffany had multiple run-ins with Roseanne around 2001 and here’s what she told THR:

“She been racist, why'd you all give her a TV show?"

Right? You want a real American story on TV? Give James Shaw Jr. a show. Put a camera on Winston Duke, Michael Bae Jordan and Chadwick Boseman at all times. Give that show a golden popcorn so the snacks get a snack.