Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) seemed to have been involved early with Black Panther, as he was credited as contributing to the Captain America: Civil War script. He’ll also be co-writing and directing the solo film, which is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated Marvel films coming-up.
Coogler spoke to Fast Company about the project and revealed it’ll be his most personal film to date.
“It’s a specific challenge. What Marvel’s doing, and what you see a lot of studios doing now that Marvel has done it so successfully, is making content that exists in a particular universe, where the characters tie in and crossover, and I think that’s a great creative challenge to me—to make this movie as personal as possible. It’s going to be my most personal movie to date, which is crazy to say, but it’s completely the case. I’m obsessed with this character and this story right now, and I think it’s going to be very unique and still fit into the overall narrative that they’re establishing. I grew up as a comic book fan, and the same things used to happen in the comic books. You’d have Wolverine’s books, and they’d be so much darker and more brutal than the X-Men books, but they’d still fit in when you open the pages of the X-Men book. It’s new to movies, but it’s not new to storytelling.”
Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige spoke on The Empire Film Podcast, revealing that Black Panther’s cast will have a majority of black actors filling roles. A lovely change from what we’ve seen in other superhero films,
“That will be amongst the best ensembles we’ve ever had and 90% of the cast is either African or African-American.”
That seems to be backed-up slightly with the current lineup, which includes Chadwick Boseman along with the potential return of Florence Kasumba as one of the fierce Dora Milaje, Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue and Martin Freeman as Everett Ross.
I assume we’ll be seeing German actor Florence Kasumba taking a bigger role as she is indeed not just a background actor and will have an upcoming role in Wonder Woman.
The new additions are reportedly going to Lupita Nyong’o as the female lead and Michael B. Jordan said to be a villain, as per usually their actual characters are currently unknown.
We are already hearing that there a three to four major female roles in Panther and that more high-profile black actors will be courted for roles.
We could also see Bucky involved in the film as Civil War hints to him possibly being in the mix.
Black Panther begins production early next year with a release date of February 16th, 2018.
SOURCE: FAST COMPANY & EMPIRE