They thought it was gonna 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. dramatic music Rocket Thrusting it showed that these kinds of stories, looking at black speculative fiction, looking at afrofuturism and blacks in scifi, looking at horror was also highly profitable. Scifi is really a conversation about our humanity and mans relationship to technology and exploring other worlds. Its really exciting to know that more blackcentric Science Fiction is making its way onto the television screens, finally. Black people have always loved Science Fiction and have always loved fantasy. We just didnt know it. When you think of how broad that landscape is, to not include every single individual that is participating in the world, then its 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. upbeat music no Ray Gun Firi
and it would ve 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 junky. - even though gina torres didn t make it to the m.a.n.t.i.s. 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. and 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 i m ethnically ambiguous to a lot of creators out there. where i did fit was in sci-fi. i could be a standalone badass. - i don t think we notice when we re watching, what it means that this is a door that has never been opened, being opened.
but they re also realizing that wow, these traumas are the basis of horror that people have experienced. (sinister music) - them was about this family that moved into this neighborhood which was predominantly white. did not want them there. and tried their damndest 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? (tires squealing) - they re gaining on us! - take this left up ahead! - 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
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. (upbeat music) - no! (ray gun firing) - when science fiction started off as a genre in television, you saw a world that in which black people did not exist. so you saw a future that was void of black people. - there s fantasy element to sci-fi and so what you re saying is that when you imagine whatever world you re imagining, you don t want us there.
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 amazing black sci-fi writers who tell stories in a different way about the future how it s really gonna change the narrative of what the future could look like. - it s really exciting to see these 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 works and now they re being adapted into television. they ve been adapted into graphic novels and now we re gonna 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.