By Gill Pringle
First created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics back in 1966, Black Panther leaped onto the big screen in Marvel’s ensemble superhero smackdown Captain America: Civil War in 2016, and now he’s headlining his own blockbuster movie. But the Panther is no mere vigilante: he is T’Challa, king of the high-tech African nation of Wakanda, a man possessed of genius intelligence, heir to an ancient lineage, and ruler of a land beset by tribal frictions and colonial ambitions.
As portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, he’s a figure who straddles two worlds, the traditional and the cutting edge, a complex character who requires deft handling on screen. Enter director Ryan Coogler, hot off the success of the acclaimed Rocky sequel Creed, and notably the first African-American to helm a Marvel film. We sat down with the Fruitvale Station honcho to talk all things Wakanda.
How familiar were you with the Black Panther character? Did you read the comics?
I loved comic books growing as a kid. The first time I heard the character, I was in the comic book shop looking for characters that look like me, literally. I was in elementary school walking up to the guy in the comic book shop “Hey, you got any comic books about black people, you know black people?” “Yeah, we got Black Panther.” The guy walked me over and showed me and talked to me about everything. It was the first I heard of him and seeing his story, what he look like and all that stuff.
You were how old?
I can’t remember the exact age. I was old enough to walk to the comic book shop by myself. I was probably playing basketball. Probably like fifth or sixth grade. I mean, comic books were huge coming up in the 1990s. That was when the animated shows like the X-Men series, the Spider-Man series, the Iron Man series you had for a bit. The Ninja Turtles was everything. Video games, pop culture, was just all around, but you wouldn’t see a lot of black characters. You were lucky if there was one. If there was one, it was never the best one or the strong one. You know what I mean, but we still gravitated towards The Power Rangers like the Black Ranger.
So what did you like in the Black Panther character?
When I was young it was the fact that he was black. It was that simple. He was strong and that, he had these connections to other characters, but my appreciation for him grew more as I got older, as I got a better understanding of my own identity. There was a level of that that was still distant because he was African. He was from Africa, which at the time when I was younger, he was a little different from me. Growing up and understanding about myself and about the world you know what I mean? You realise that you’re not so different.
When they offered you Black Panther, did you feel flattered or offended?
Oh, I felt flattered for sure and honoured. Did you mean offered the movie because I’m black? No. I actually appreciate that they wanted me because I have that perspective. I think that a lot of my favourite movies come from a perspective of a filmmaker that feels ownership too. I think a lot of the great British cinema, a lot of great international cinema that I love, films like City of God, Fish Tank – do you know what I mean? I was actually excited that they were engaging with filmmakers of African descent for the film. I thought it was the smart thing to do.
It’s been a big discussion. I remember when Chadwick [Boseman, who plays the Black Panther] played James Brown; it was a big discussion as to why they had a white director. Has Hollywood changed in the last three, four years?
Hard to say, I’m still new to it. It’s hard for me to say how much has changed. I think that like any other business, it’s going over what proves itself to make money. If a certain thing proves itself to work that’s what will happen. I think you have to trust the business to be a business. It’s hard to judge whether or not something has changed in a short amount of time. Things can swing in different directions.
I think comic books work best when it’s allegorical. That’s kind of like what they are, kind of like our own version of modern mythology, but they work best when somebody can kind of see themselves, their own issues and grip on to them. This character is like me in this situation; you know what I mean? For me, that is how I fell in love with international cinema.
You mention City of God from Brazil. What was the most amazing thing about City of God?
It felt like my neighbourhood. We had stories like that that I heard. I knew people exactly like that, not exactly like Lil Ze but I knew people that were similar. The people speak a different language but it felt like Oakland. In a way that was like a light bulb goes off. This universal connectivity: I watch a movie 100 per cent in Portuguese and follow it, and I’m revealed, and I feel like I’m right there. I recognise myself as those characters. It’s what we do every day when we watch films about white people.
We watch Game of Thrones, my black homies, and they’re like “I’m just like this person”. We watch Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man or the Batmans so it’s no argument why it can’t work the other way. It works in sports, like when Lebron James goes to China. The Chinese feel like when Lebron dunks, they dunk. Regardless of what Lebron looks like, they follow, and I think it can work in cinema the same way. For me, film became literally the way that I travel, and this movie is how I got to go to the continent.
Can you talk about the challenges of keeping things somehow grounded in reality despite that fact Wakanda is crazy sci-fi country with unbelievable technology?
Casting was probably the biggest one. Having Marvel there as well as collaborators, because they’ve done the fantastical stuff. I think they’re really good arbiters. It’s not like they get crazy, that’s the thing: “We don’t want that, we want this to be grounded.” So they were a good back stop.
For me, the last couple of movies that I made were very reality-based. Fruitvale more so than Creed, but Creed was tactical punching each other with their hands and talking in their rooms, so I try to lean into that and also cast actors that you should believe. We got credible performances in this film; they talk about this fictional metal [vibranium], but you believe in relationships, you believe in their concerns and their fears.
You said that the movie took inspiration from current political events?
I was inspired by the current political events. They still kind of make connections with things that have happened in the past. We were looking for a timeless aspect of it. It’s [Wakanda] a place going through a political transition. It was funny when we were writing this film, prepping the film during the election year. It’s interesting when you’re dealing with that energy, which way the country is going to go, which way is it going to swing – in many ways that’s what Wakanda is dealing with: a political transition. It’s going from an old man ruling to a young man ruling and the question is what’s Wakanda going to be in the future? Is it going to be the way it was or going to be different? That’s kind of like the chief political question of the film.
Did you have an opportunity to talk with Stan Lee?
Yeah, I met Stan on set. Crazy enough, I had met him before at the Sundance Film Festival the first time I went in 2012. I saw him and he explained to me how important T’Challa was to him. He talked about how he was important to him. He made a black character who had all these things going for him. Had knowledge of his heritage, couldn’t be taken advantage of financially, all of these things, and he said the character had a special place in his heart. He wanted to make sure I did it right by him.
Black Panther is in Australian cinemas from February 15, 2018.
