A pair of Marvel superhero films - in the forms of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther and Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - are up for major awards at the 2019 Golden Globes. Black Panther secured three Golden Globe nods in total, including a nomination for Best Drama in the motion picture category. Meanwhile, Into the Spider-Verse landed a nomination for Best Animated Motion Picture, alongside films like Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Disney’s animated sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Black Panther, which was co-written and directed by Ryan Coogler (Creed), follows T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) as he settles into his newfound role as the king of Wakanda in the aftermath of Captain America: Civil War. The Marvel Cinematic Universe film became a true pop cultural phenomenon when it opened in theaters back in February and has already been honored as one of the best movies of 2018 by the AFI. Into the Spider-Verse, on the other hand, hasn’t even made its way to theaters yet, but is already generating terrific word of mouth. The movie explores the origin story for Miles Morales (voiced by Shameik Moore), aka. Ultimate Spider-Man, and reveals what happens when he discovers there’s - literally - an entire multiverse of web-slingers out there.

Directed by Bob Persichetti (co-writer of The Little Prince), Peter Ramsey (Rise of the Guardians), and Rodney Rothman (who also co-penned the movie), Into the Spider-Verse has been dubbed the best animated film of 2018 by the NYFCC and is now in the running for best animated feature at 2019’s Golden Globes, pitting it against films like Incredibles 2 and Mirai (in addition to the aforementioned titles). Elsewhere, Black Panther’s competition in the Best Drama category includes Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, and Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Black Panther is also in the running for Best Score at the 2019 Golden Globes, with Ludwig Göransson’s music for the film going up against the scores from Isle of Dogs, A Quiet Place, First Man, and Mary Poppins Returns in the same category. Kendrick Lamar and SZA further took home a nomination for Best Song thanks to their Black Panther tune “All the Stars”, with the competition in that area including the front-runner “Shallow” from A Star is Born and songs like “Revelation” from Boy Erased and “Girl in the Movies” from Dumplin’ (a Netflix Original movie that releases on Friday, December 7).

While superhero films have received Golden Globes nods in the past (to be exact: Deadpool was nominated for both Best Comedy/Musical and Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, two years ago), Black Panther is the first movie in that genre to land a nod for Best Drama at the event. Likewise, it’s unprecedented for there to be two Marvel comic book adaptations in the running at the Golden Globes for major categories. Thanks to T’Challa’s live-action solo adventure and Miles Morales’ own animated feature, however, that is no longer the case. The fact that both films have been celebrated for their inclusive and otherwise ground-breaking approaches to the genre simply makes this news that much sweeter.

MORE: Read the Full List of 2019 Golden Globe Nominations

The 76th Annual Golden Globe Awards airs live on January 6 @8pm ET/5pm PT on NBC.

Source: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association

  • Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse Release Date: 2018-12-14