Fan Fest News

News for Fans, By Fans!

Ryan Coogler on the Elements and Influences of ‘Black Panther’

It’s easy to hype up a movie before it comes out. Watching the killer parts of the trailer, hoping to see certain scenes played out the way you’ve imagined and see character interaction you can envision in your head. With all of our own personal expectations, sometimes we go into a theater hoping for too much.

While we can admit that we’re guilty of that, one film we think will hit all the marks and then some is Black Panther. The film has been given the ultimate cast, a stunning set up for the nation of Wakanda, an incredible soundtrack, and a director who believes in the film as much as the fans do.

Ryan Coogler recently spoke with Fandango about the film and had this to say about what makes it unique.

There have been a lot of superhero movies made. As a comic book and superhero film fan myself, I feel like we’ve seen a lot at this point. I think that the cultural element of Black Panther and how cultural specificity takes such a big role in the film — that’s what makes it quite unique. I’m excited to see more superhero movies, but there hasn’t really been a film about a character like T’Challa before.

He went on to speak about influences the film hasThe film has influences from other powerhouse movies as well. Some of which are James Bond films.

‘Yeah, definitely with James Bond. I think similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we’re definitely influenced by the films of the ’70s and influenced by crime fiction.’

He went on to specify what James Bond films he watched as he was looking for elements to help him craft the perfect Black Panther film.

‘We were looking at all of that stuff and also watched a lot of the James Bond films, but not the new ones. I wanted to watch the ones that were made in the ’60s and ’70s. I watched Goldfinger for the first time, and I just thought it was really interesting in terms of how James Bond was handy.’

From the previews alone we’ve seen a T’Challa’s handy work and we don’t have a long wait until we see the hero in action on the big screen. Black Panther hits theaters on February 16th.

Related Posts:

‘Long Live the King’ Shouts Marvel’s Latest Look at ‘Black Panther’

Hero Nation Raises Funds to Bring Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ to Low-Income Youth

See the New Character Bios for Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’

Marvel Offers ‘Create Your Own’ Comic App