Ryan Coogler reveals the pressure while shooting “Black Panther”

• Ryan Coogler is the director and screenwriter of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
• In an interview with The Official Black Panther Podcast, he discussed the pressure.
• Said it was important for the franchise to continue within the MCU.

Ryan Coogler, the director and screenwriter of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is well aware of this, and in a recent interview with The Official Black Panther Podcast, he discussed the pressure he felt while bringing 2018’s Black Panther to reality.

Everyone knows – or assumes – that putting together a Marvel film is a lot of labour. This is especially challenging if you are a rookie tasked with introducing a completely new world to an audience that has high expectations when they walk into a movie theatre.

During the interview, which was conducted by Black Panther comic book writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, Coogler discussed the overwhelming feeling of doing justice to such an iconic character, as well as the notion that the film needed to make an impression in order for the franchise to continue to exist within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, he had to give his all in every scene as a director. He, of course, did it. But it came at a price:

“‘Black Panther’ at that point was the craziest thing I had ever done professionally. And, at times it felt like I wasn’t going to survive, that I wasn’t going to do it. Because it was so hard and so intense, and different from things I had done before. […] There was no ‘Black Panther’ before it.

There were other Marvel movies, and everything that they’d made before worked really well. I think before us there was ‘Spider-Man [Homecoming]’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’, ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, you know, these movies were really, really working. So there was a lot of pressure. Strangely, Chad[wick Boseman] was always very confident.

Chad always knew what we had. […] He was always kind of like ahead of things, and had a lot of clarity, but I was a mess! […] When [the movie] came out and it worked as a piece of business and it worked as a piece of art, and once we realized that ‘oh, ok, we kind of did what we set out to do’, it was like a big breath… that was cool. […] But it wasn’t like we weren’t trying to do our best. Every day we were trying to knock it out of the park.”

All of the stress and anxiety paid off: Black Panther grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing films of 2018, and establishing T’Challa as one of the Marvel universe’s core characters.

The sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is eagerly awaited not just because fans want to know what happens to the titular character, but also because the film stands out among blockbusters because to its distinct soundtrack, spectacular costume and production design, and ambitious world building.

The Official Black Panther Podcast is a show that celebrates the legacy of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by interviewing key players from the film, including Angela Bassett, Marvel mega-producer Kevin Feige, composer Ludwig Göransson, producer Nate Moore, and Marvel newcomer Dominique Thorne, who plays Riri Williams/Ironheart in the film.

On November 11, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be released in theatres.

The most recent trailer is available below:

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