“We Have Stories” founder Frederick Joseph is ready to do more good.
As you surely know, amid the success of Marvel’s Black Panther film, the marketing guru founded the #BlackPantherChallenge—a philanthropic enterprise to help get disadvantage kids to theaters to see the historic flick.
“I really felt that kids needed to see themselves represented in that way,” Joseph exclusively shared to E! Countdown to the Red Carpet: Oscars 2019 commentators Jeannie Mai and Nina Parker. “So once I saw that people were receptive to it, I said, ‘Well maybe I can use some of my marketing ingenuity and contacts to make this thing grow…and people made it happen.”
And grow it did as the challenge went on to raise more than a million dollars, with 73,000 children taking in the groundbreaking superhero movie.
However, it’s not about the numbers for Joseph as he hoped this effort would simply inspire children who’ve felt underrepresented. “People don’t understand that the seed to the potential of a child—or the potential of a person—could be right in a film or a song,” Joseph further relayed.
Thus, Frederick’s work isn’t done as he announced on Sunday that he plans to do a similar campaign for Marvel Studios’ first female-led film, Captain Marvel.
“We said, ‘You know what? We did it once, let’s take some girls to see it and some kids around the country!'” the philanthropist noted. “So we started the Captain Marvel Challenge and we’re specifically, with the first campaign, helping an organization called Girls Inc.”
In order to thank Joseph for everything he’s done, Nina and Jeannie surprised Frederick with a group of children in Black Panther costumes. Oh, and we can’t forget to mention the $10,000 dollar donation for the Captain Marvel Challenge!
“So, we have for you, $10,000 from E! to help you with your Captain Marvel dreams of getting everybody to watch the film,” Mai explained.
For that inspiring moment and more, be sure to take a peek at the clip above!
Watch E! this Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT for our comprehensive 2019 Oscars red carpet coverage followed by the Oscars telecast on ABC at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. PT! After the show, watch E!’s After Party special at 11 p.m. And don’t miss E! News on Monday at 7 p.m. for a recap of Hollywood’s biggest night.