And with good reason.
There’s a lot to dig into here, so let’s get to it!
Where does this story begin?
Can you tell us that?
Nate Moore: It begins where Civil War left off, right?
So obviously that movie had a big impact on TChalla because of TChakas death.
Image via Marvel Studios
So now we answer the question, What happens when he goes home?
And is TChalla ready to be the king of Wakanda?
How is that being balanced within this film?
Image via Marvel Studios
Obviously the mantle of King and the mantle of Black Panther are things that are passed down in Wakanda.
So we always imagined TChaka was King but TChalla already was Black Panther.
So what happens now when the Black Panther is next in line to be King?
Image via Marvel Studios
And are people going to be okay with him taking the mantle?
Or is there going to be any resistance to that?
Its a big plot point in the movie.
Image via Marvel Studios
All of Wakanda is not monolithic.
Everybody doesnt agree about everything.
Everybody doesnt like the same people.
Image via Marvel Studios
How do you keep this country unified?
Can you talk about Killmongers role?
Is there a power play for him trying to take the mantle or that sort of thing?
Image via Marvel Studios
Sort of this big globe-trotting epic.
And much like theGodfather, you have to fight for things, right?
And theyre all vying for power and in this case, its power over Wakanda.
Image via Marvel Studios
Do we get a sense of how the Wakandans regard TChalla prior to him becoming King?
Moore: You do in a way.
And I think for him, this is a guy who wasnt planning to be king any time soon.
Image via Marvel Studios
So he sort of being thrust into a leadership position almost before his time.
So hes not even sure if hes the right leader for Wakanda.
How much will we see of his upbringing and his life up untilCivil War?
Image via Marvel Studios
So we get flashbacks?
Moore: There are ways that we can explore the past in non-traditional storytelling, I will say.
How did Ryan [Coogler] crack things open from what you and Marvel were planning to do?
Image via Marvel Studios
When he came in, what were the shifts that you saw?
Moore: I think Ryan is a fantastic storyteller, specifically with character.
We sort of knew the overall framework of what we wanted the movie to be.
Image via Marvel Studios
Ryan was really interested in exploring those relationships.
So therell be a lot more as far as their role in the story?
That was my next question about the Dora Milaje.
Image via Marvel Studios
Theyre a big part of the movie.
Is the betrothal aspect explored as well?
Moore: Its not.
Image via Marvel Studios
So we will not be exploring that.
Moore: Its definitely not the relationship you expect from reading the comics.
And as you said, we like to be inspired by Publishing but were also building our own universe.
Image via Marvel Studios
I think Killmonger and Klaue have two very different agendas.
They do not line up perfectly.
Whether or not these guys have a relationship is something we want you guys to learn.
Image via Marvel Studios
I think its going to be really fun.
How much is this movie going to be reflective of the obvious political turmoil were experiencing now?
Moore: Its interesting.
Image via Marvel Studios
I think the movie is inherently political.
But when youre dealing with an African character and the outside world, politics are inherently there.
We dont want to be too political.
Image via Marvel Studios
Its not by any means a message movie.
But I think people once they see the film will see the relevance in it.
I think Panther will have similar echoes of whats happening.
Black Pantheris an incredibly important story for Black audiences.
Moore: I think youll see all of it.
The truth is theyre human.
Theyre just 20 or 25 years ahead of us.
Again, black faces in positions of power or positions of technological know-how, thats a rarity.
Will you depict the fact that TChalla is in fact wealthier than Tony Stark?
Moore: We dont put a – its not a plot point, you know what I mean?
I think its inherent in what you see without us having to point it out directly.
Thats part of the movie, right?
I dont think everybody in Wakanda was super happy that he was out there.
I think people understood.
Obviously the death of TChaka was such an emotionally changed thing.
I dont think people didnt understand why he did it.
But they werent happy about it.
And again, for a country that values its secrecy so much, that was a big deal.
Will this movie explore the more spiritual side of Wakanda and the Black Panther mythology?
Moore: It is.
Moore: I think you might see a little bit of that.
Again, we thought this mythology was so rich we didnt want to throw out any part of it.
In the same way, they havent lost a lot of their cultural touchstones that other places have.
They still worship, potentially the same gods they did when they first started.
You mentioned this movie isnt going to rely on any cameos from otherAvengersmovies.
Is it safe to assume that theWinter Soldieris still on ice and isnt going to factor in at all?
Moore: That is pretty safe to assume.
Obviously this is a little more linked to the MCU coming out ofCivil War.
Moore: I think its inherently linked because of theCivil Warconnections and because of the Ultron connections with Klaue.
So there are strings that we are playing with.
Moore: We had a pretty blank slate.
We knew we were inheriting stuff fromCivil War.
They had a lot of latitude to explore different ideas and put characters in and take them out.
But it wasn’t, by any means, hemmed in by things that wed thought of.
Sometimes its a happy accident that they do.
Again,Civil Waris a good example of that.
It was never the intention of that movie in the beginning to set up Black Panther.
I think this is similar.
Moore: Yeah, I think were eternally very wary of the world is going to end stakes.
Because its exhausting and weirdly those stakes being that high always ring false.
It always take you out of the movie because you know the world isnt going to end.
Whats really at stake?
Also I think villains who want to take over or destroy the world are kind of exhausting.
That doesnt feel real, right?
Its always better to have a more personal, pointed goal.
It just makes it more interesting.
Obviously this is an original story.
Are there any specific runs of the comic that they were inspired by?
Moore: I would say the two runs that were most inspirational were the Priest and Ta-Nehisi run.
Its the best run.
I was curious to know was there any consulting done by either Priest or even Hedlund or Coates?
Moore: Ryan and Ta-Nehisi have a friendship, so theyve spoken.
Weve talked to them.
And it turned out that a lot of what they found interesting was what we also found interesting.
We loved Reggies run.
We didnt talk to him as much.
It was really Chris and Ta-Nehisi runs that were the most inspirational.
Going off of that, with the publishing, you said you guys just tried to be inspired.
Moore: Yes and no.
Its a very small place.
Im curious, in that sense how were going to be exploring the geography of the entire country?
We didnt want it to feel like it was a city.
Sometimes in comics it just feels like a city.
Wakanda has different regions which is cool.
It has different climates and we wanted to go through all of those.
All that is part of the storytelling.
Moore: It honestly was everything.
We sort of scoured the continent for the best stuff.
Was there a story logic to the hidden quality like why they decided to be hidden away?
So they did the smart thing.
They hid that fact so nobody knows that they have this stuff.
Thats why theyve been able to have these advancements.
They dont spend money on war.
They dont spend money defending themselves constantly.
They just spend money on infrastructure which is something, again that will feel topical.
Just that idea of what happens when youre not 24/7 trying to fend off the rest of the world.
Thats allowed them to build something amazing.
That was an important part.
It allowed us to map out a story that felt organic rather than trying to force in different things.
We thought that was really interesting.
Even characters that were fraught with plot, they become politically charged.
The character of MBaku has always been problematic.
Man-Ape is an image that I personally find offensive and can be offensive if handled incorrectly.
Thats something thats real.
Otherwise, we would have just taken him out.
Can you give us a scale of the film as far as the locations?
Moore: You get to go around the world a little bit.
We thought that was important.
So you do get to be outside of the country as well as explore the country.
Moore: Ross is an important character in the movie for sure.
I think tonally this does veer more towardWinter Soldierthan it doesGuardiansorAnt-Manor some of our more overtly comedic films.
Okoye is a lot of fun.
The character of Nakia who Lupita Nyong’o plays is a lot of fun.
Its surrounding him, much like we did with Cap, with characters who can bring out different colors.
Hopefully its still entertaining without breaking what makes Panther Panther.
I think Klaue, obviously has a history of Wakanda that we want to explore.
It was hinted at inUltronand will be expanded on here.
And Klaue has made some upgrades to himself that allow him to be a formidable enemy.
Its not just about power.
I think there are very personal reasons why anybody opposes TChalla.
How much of a presence is Shuri going to have?
Shes a prolific character.
Moore: Shes a big part of the film.
Yeah, look shes his sister.
And being the Head of Technology in Wakanda has a ton of responsibilities.
Part of that responsibility is keeping that technology secret while developing these amazing gadgets.
Does this mean, like a Bond movie then, does she serve as TChallas Q?
Moore: To some degree.
Thats a comparison weve made.
Weve talked about the tone compared to MCU.
But what about the action?
This is obviously an action movie, too.
We love seeing Black Panther kick ass inCivil War.
Its not just stand-up, bare-knuckle punching.
Its a new fighting style that again borrows from a lot of different fighting styles from around the world.
It shouldn’t feel like what you or I can see in any other movie.
They have weapons that are weapons we havent seen before.
They have vehicles we havent seen before.
Imagine a whole world that is going to open up to audiences.
I think itll be a lot of fun.
You talked a little bit about how the outside world sees Wakanda.
How much are we going to see about how people in Wakanda see the outside world?
Obviously were going to see how Black Panther feels about it but the average citizen for example?
Again, thats where, without being heavy handed, some of that political context could leak in.
As we know, the costumes tend to change a bit between films?
Moore: We always love the idea of giving the audience something new.
Youll see theCivil Warcostume and youll see 2.0 of that.
That again will be a part of Shuris contribution.
Shes seen what the costume can do.
Moore: Weve talked about that.
Its something were still developing.
But we like the idea that the costume doesnt have to be put on in a traditional way.
That he doesnt have to take the helmet off, put it on, zip up the back.
Is there a visual depiction of the history of the Black Panther in the movie?
Moore: Thats a good question.
I dont know if theres anything as pointed as that.
And I think thats something that will dial to taste.
Wakanda itself was first hinted at inIron Man 2.
Moore: We talked about it.
And the truth was, there was so much to bite off that we didnt want to waste it.
We could have gone there a couple of times before.
There were iterations of other scripts where we did go to Wakanda.
But we didnt want to tease it without a full idea of what it was going to be.
All of those ideas fell to the wayside until we could spend a full movie on it.
Marvel hasnt been shy about casting big name actors.
But this cast is a cut above.
The list, every single one of them is award-winning, award-nominated, celebrated actors.
Moore: I think thats the biggest challenge.
We always give a shot to punch in a little bit above our weight when we cast.
Ryan came to the table with a lot of casting ideas that were really good.
And it was hard.
I think a big part of that was Ryan.
And I think a big part of that was the subject matter.
But its also finding new heroes and new stories that allow us to do that organically.
Looking at casting as a way to find the best actor regardless of race or gender frankly.
Sometimes we step in it a little bit.
I think the Ancient One inDoctor Strangewas a bit of a lesson for us.
In trying to avoid a stereotype we created an issue that we completely understood in hindsight.
But we want to tell stories for everybody.
I think thats really valuable.
Moore: We did!
We pay attention to all that stuff.
It gets us excited when people are excited.
We dont take that for granted.
We dont assume people are going to show up to any of our movies.
Its heartening for us.
We want to hear back from everybody.
Kevin has always said hes on the side of the audience.
He wants people to love the movies as much as we love the movies.
So all of that stuff we track for sure.
Scott Derrickson talked about having to do an elaborate pitch to getDoctor Strange.
Moore: We kind of watchedCreedand said, That guy.
Then we hunted him down and made him say yes.
But it was hard.
And thats what we wanted as well.
I think Marvel has a reputation, earned or not, as being a difficult place for filmmakers.
Moore: Its a more emotional movie than we anticipated, I think in a good way.
And when living, breathing humans bring those characters to life, interacting with each other.
I dont think we imagined how emotionally impactful these scenes would be.
