Ryan Coogler Directing Black Panther

So, the first major comic book adaptation news story of 2016 is officially here with the announcement that Ryan Coogler will be directing Black Panther for Marvel Studios.  This is one of those announcements that’s been in the post for a long time but it’s nice to finally have official confirmation on it.  Black Panther has been lingering over Marvel’s phase 3 schedule alongside Captain Marvel ever since they both got bumped from the 2017 spot by the new Spider-Man movie so getting some kind of information on it is thoroughly welcome.  At the same time it’s great to see Marvel pursuing an African American director for the film, especially an up and coming talent like Ryan Coogler. 

Coogler may be new but so far he’s shown amazing directorial skill mixed with a consummate and confident sense of vision that makes him feel like an old pro.  His twin success, Fruitvale Station and Creed, have helped make him a serious name in both critical circles and with audiences so throwing him the reigns to a big budget Marvel superhero film feels like the next natural step in his evolution as a filmmaker.  However, Black Panther isn’t just a big budget superhero film, it’s an adaptation of the most important black superhero of all time and possibly the biggest mark for diversity in this genre since Blade.

This is going to be part speculation on what Coogler’s vision of the Black Panther will be but also something of a crash course in comics’ premiere black hero.  I’ll dig deeper into the nuances of his history somewhere down the line but we’ve got 2 years till his movie gets here so there’s really no need to rush this.  Created in 1966 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, Black Panther was the first ever black superhero.  He originally appeared in Fantastic Four as a major supporting character before eventually joining the Avengers and enjoying a sporadic collection of solo comics and mini-series.

 

The idea behind the Black Panther was that he was in reality King T’Challa, ruler of a hyper-advanced African nation called Wakanda.  For decades, the kings of Wakanda had also served as the Black Panther, a quasi-religious mantle of their nation’s protector and costumed hero because this takes place in a world where Viking Gods are real and a costumed mystery man helped end World War 2.  The mantel of Black Panther affords T’Challa enhances senses and abilities but its always been his incredible physical training and genius level intelligence that made him such a formidable hero.  He’s basically Batman, Nick Fury, and Iron Man all rolled up into one except he’s also the ruler of the most advanced country on the planet. 

In case you were wondering about his name, it is directly taken from the Black Panther Civil Rights movement that sprung up in America during that same time as T’Challa’s inception.  A lot of superhero work from this era was steeped in socially conscious ideals that way, like how Superman fought the KKK or even going back to Captain America punching out Hitler a full 6 months prior to America joining the war.  A lot of this has to do with the people producing comics and making big decisions at the time, especially at Marvel where both Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were the children of Jewish immigrants who had to adopt fake names to get their work published. 

Given that kind of political baggage and the fact that representation has become such a hot button issue lately there’s a lot of weight on the shoulders of this upcoming adaptation.  Obviously, there’s no way of telling what the world of 2018 will look like and whether it’ll have as many racially charged issues as the present does but regardless, Black Panther’s in-universe excellence is key to the character’s whole thesis.  He’s a guy who could outfight Captain America and out think Iron Man, both of which were emphasized as deliberate and important parts of his identity.  This same idea extends to Wakanda as the most advanced nation in Marvel universe Earth.  It’s a country gifted with incredibly advanced technology and science while also following the path of an isolationist nation, completely removed from Western society. 

All of this means a very interesting question about how Ryan Coogler will approach the source material.  Coogler’s films so far have been steeped in tragedy and struggle respectively, Fruitvale Station emphasizing the meaninglessness of tragedy by showcasing a very small, single day in one man’s life while Creed revolves around the externalization of an internal struggle when grappling with a legacy that could define you while robbing you of your own identity.  Obviously there’s not a lot of common ground between those stories and that of an African king/superhero/super spy/genius scientist and his globetrotting adventures protecting his Afro-futurist nation.  Where I think Coogler’s skill will come into play is that he is excellent at externalizing a film’s more meta-purpose into the actual text of the story. 

Creed is a movie about grappling with forging your own identity while also honoring a legacy you respect, a narrative that serves to reflect the struggle of trying to make a Rocky spin-off/sequel in 2015 that’s both faithful to the original and a new and exciting vision.  Fruitvale Station is about trying to find some single scrap of meaning in the last day of someone’s very ordinary life while the process of making the film was about grappling to find meaning in an event that’s only become more and more a prevalent in every day conversation.  

As such, I wouldn’t be surprised if Black Panther ended up about the clash of conflicts between trying to do something different or unique and meaningful while working within a more systemic and rigidly structured system, basically the same challenge Coogler will probably be facing from the infamously producer driven folks at Marvel Studios. 

Now obviously this is all speculation and it’s honestly still a little to early to make a strong proclamation on Ryan Coogler’s narrative affects and stylizations yet given this will only be his third film.  What we know about the movie for sure is that it will tie-in to Avengers: Infinity War and Captain America: Civil War in a big way.  Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther will be first premiering in Civil War, chasing after the Winter Soldier as he blames him for the death of his father.  It’s still unclear how much of Civil War’s hero registration story will be permanent, especially given it’s now an international initiative rather than an American only one, so it’s possible Black Panther will have to address that in some way.  

What is basically set in stone is that Andry Serkis will be appearing as the villain Ulysses Klaw, a sound based bad guy who first appeared as an arms dealer in Age of Ultron.  This ties into one of the main McGuffins of the Black Panther mythos called Vibranium, the super metal that Captain America’s shield is made of.  The idea has always been that Wakanda sits on top the world’s largest supply of Vibranium and, as such, it’s been instrumental in their rise to technological supremacy.

There’s also the chance Black Panther will feature an Infinity Stone popping up somewhere.  There are currently only 2 stones left unaccounted for: the Soul Stone and the Time Stone.  I’m not necessarily sure either will show up in Wakanda given that Dr. Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 seem like the more logical places but I could see them having the time stone be linked to Wakanda’s futuristic technology.  If Marvel is planning on dropping an Infinity Stone into the middle of Wakanda then it’s most likely the film will be tied very much to Infinity War part 1, which comes out about 2 months before Black Panther.  

Given that Infinity War has been promising the final pay-off to all of Thanos’ skulking and plotting Marvel could end up making Black Panther an invasion story about Wakanda’s stand against a Thanos invasion to claim their infinity stone.  We already know Thanos will have to come to Earth to collect the Mind Stone from the Vision so following up his initial strike with Black Panther leading Wakanda as Earth’s last defense could be a great middle part of Marvel’s 3 pronged 2018 movie strategy. 

Black Panther is scheduled for release on July 6, 2018


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