BLACK
PANTHER

A DIRECTOR OF FRUITVALE STATION AND CREED

HOW RYAN COOGLER CAME TO DIRECT BLACK PANTHER

Marvel confirmed Ryan Coogler as director in January 2016, after the success of Fruitvale Station and Creed. Kevin Feige said, “We are fortunate to have such an esteemed filmmaker join the Marvel family.” Coogler wrote the screenplay with Joe Robert Cole.

Chadwick Boseman plays T’Challa, with Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Letitia Wright as Shuri, Winston Duke as M’Baku and Angela Bassett as Ramonda. Florence Kasumba and John Kani reprise roles from Captain America: Civil War.

A CITY INVENTED FROM NATURE AND HISTORY

HOW WAKANDA WAS DESIGNED AND COSTUMED

Hannah Beachler was production designer and Ruth E. Carter costume designer, with filming from January to April 2017 at EUE/Screen Gems Studios in the Atlanta area and location shooting in Busan, South Korea, from 17 to 27 March.

Beachler and Coogler travelled around Africa to research cultures and scout locations. Beachler produced a 515-page design “bible” that gave histories to Wakanda’s buildings, waterfalls and technology. She said her method began with nature:

“everything around me that was nature I took pictures of”

Hannah Beachler, 22 February 2019

A TALKING DRUM AND A CURATED ALBUM

HOW THE FILM SOUNDS

Composer Ludwig Göransson said in February 2019 that he went on tour in Senegal with Baaba Maal, and described the talking drum as “almost like a human voice because you can talk with it.” He said the hardest part was fitting the traditional orchestra into something that sounded African.

Black Panther: The Album, produced by Kendrick Lamar and Anthony Tiffith, came out on 9 February 2018, a week before the film, and Göransson’s score followed on 16 February. “All the Stars” was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

A RECORD FEBRUARY OPENING

HOW THE FILM OPENED AND WHAT IT EARNED

The film premiered on 29 January 2018 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and opened in 4,020 US theatres on 16 February. Its US opening weekend of $202,003,951 was a February record, and it earned $242.1 million over the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend. Its second weekend fell by 45 percent, the smallest second-weekend drop of any MCU film.

It went on to earn about $1.33 billion worldwide against a production budget of $200 million. There is a mid-credits scene in which T’Challa addresses the United Nations and a post-credits scene with Shuri and Bucky Barnes.

THE REWATCH

A 96% CRITICS SCORE AND THREE OSCARS

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 96% critics’ score from 527 reviews and a 79% audience score, and its consensus says the film “elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights.” Metacritic gives it 88 from 55 critics. It received seven nominations at the 91st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the first for a superhero film.

It won three: Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Original Score, Marvel Studios’ first Oscar wins. Carter and Beachler became the first Black winners in their categories. In her speech, Carter said that through costume design they “turned him into an African king.”

In the Marvel Marathon it sits in the MCU release order guide between Thor: Ragnarok and Team Darryl, and in the MCU movies in order and Marvel movies in release order guides between Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity War. In the MCU timeline guide it follows Black Widow and comes before Spider-Man: Homecoming.