Road to Infinity War: BLACK PANTHER Retrospective With Words From Director Ryan Coogler

Welcome to the Road to AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. This is my own little retrospective of each of Marvel Studios' films every week of 2018 and by the time I am done looking back at all of the MCU movies, Infinity War will be releasing in theaters in the U.S. on May 4 worldwide on April 27. 

I've already talked about IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, IRON MAN 2, THOR, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, and THE AVENGERS to conclude Phase 1.

I have also completed Phase 2 with IRON MAN 3, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, and ANT-MAN.

Now, I'm on to Phase 3 with CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, DOCTOR STRANGE, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2,  SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, THOR: RAGNAROK in the rearview mirror... up next is the conclusion to this retrospective series with BLACK PANTHER...

Oh my gosh we have arrived to the end of this retrospective series! I started this journey the first week of January and with the exception of Infinity War being moved up one week — which meant I had to post two of these retrospective pieces in one week to compensate the move — it has been a joy going back to re-live and remember things from Marvel Studios' first 10 years. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have enjoyed this writing adventure as the release of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR looms in just a few days!! (P.S. I am seeing it on Tuesday April 24 at 2 p.m. Eastern but that's all I'm allowed to say right now.)

Since BLACK PANTHER is the most recent release, it is fresh in fans' minds. So I'm not going to get into anything you probably don't already know, however, I will provide you a quoted passage from writer and director Ryan Coogler's written foreword in the 'Marvel's Black Panther: The Art of the Movie' book. I may not be African or African-America, but the first time I read this it really touched my heart and I hope these words really speak to you in some way, too.

"What does it mean to be African? That was the question I had been wondering since before I can remember. My parents described African to me as best they could. I knew that although I was living in America, my ancestors came from a different place — a place far away where we assume they were free of some of the struggles that we faced as a people here in the States, until one day they were captured, enslaved, and transported thousands of miles from their homeland. But the truth was, how could I know anything about a place that I, and no one I know, have ever been?

"As I got older, I came to understand that Africa was the birthplace of human life. But the representations of Africa in the media were rarely positive and always incomplete. I had learned to take great pride in my family and my neighborhoods, but the image I saw about Africa often filled me with a sense of shame. I knew these images couldn't be the whole truth about Africa. I longed to one day go there and see it for myself.

"As I got older, I fell in love with comic books. I was amazed by how characters who were told they were different could be powerful, but I was yearning for a book about a super hero who looked like me. One day, when I was still in elementary school in Oakland, California, I asked the gentlemen at the counter of my favorite shop if he had any comic books about Black super heroes. He walked me over to the Marvel section and showed me the Black Panther comics. I read them, and although T'Challa looked like me, it didn't connect. He is African, I thought. I'm African-America, something different. T'Challa was a descendant of slaves whose true names I didn't know. T'Challa knew what it meant to be African. I only knew what it meant to be African-American.

"About 20 years later, I received a call from Nate Moore, a producer at Marvel Studios who had been developing BLACK PANTHER. I was wrapping up postproduction on my film CREED, and he was finishing up work on CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. We agreed to meet when we found ourselves less busy.

"When I first sat down with Nate, I immediately found a kindred spirit. Someone who loves comics, and movies, and expects the very best out of them. Someone who found not only an escape through the genre, but also often a sense of hope and purpose.

"When I sat down with Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, and Victoria Alonso, I felt at ease. I knew that I had found allies who wanted to make a great movie that worked on the levels of scope, but also on emotion.

"Kevin told me he wanted to bring these character to life in a way that global audiences could connect with. He wanted kids, who could not look more different than I or T'Challa or Chadwick Boseman, to see this movie and look up to T'Challa forever. I tole him I wanted to make a film that explores what it means to be African, one that would have filled my 8-year-old self with a sense of pride. Thankfully for me, he and his team agreed, and we got to work immediately.

"As I got ready to write the script with Joe Robert Cole, I told Nate that the first thing I would need to do was go to Africa for a research trip. The studio agreed. The trip changed my life...

"...As for the question of what it means to be African, I found the answer in this project. During my trip to the continent, I traveled and met with other African people my age, and I discovered that they were so much like me and my family back in the States that I felt completely at home. I recognized several of their rituals as things we would do back home. I realized that for African-Americans, our African culture wasn't lost. Somehow, after all the horrible things we went through, we still found a way to hold onto it.

"To be African is to be respectful of your place in nature. To be African is to love your family so much that you spend time with them every chance you get, and when your ancestors die, you never let them go. To be Africans is to paint the story of your people on the walls of building, on your body, on your clothing, on the ground, and in songs. To be Africans means to make the most beautiful music in the world, and when it plays, to dance until you feel one with the universe. To be African means to love your very soul, and when you fight, your fight with that, too. To be African is to be human. This project took me on a 2-year journey to find an answer that was in my heart all along. For that I will always be thankful to Marvel Studios, to my BLACK PANTHER cast and crew, to Stan Lee, and to T'Challa." -- Ryan Coogler

BLACK PANTHER released on February 16, 2018 and it opened way bigger than expected or projected. Going into its release, the movie was predicted to earn somewhere between $150 million – $165 million. When the dust settled, and the opening weekend numbers were tallied, BLACK PANTHER opened huge with $202 million, domestically. This marked only the fifth time in cinema history that a film opened over $200 million (based on unadjusted numbers for inflation). Only STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS ($247M), STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI ($220M), JURASSIC WORLD ($208M), and THE AVENGERS ($207M) have opened bigger.

The total domestic gross for BLACK PANTHER surpassed the studios' previous No. 1 which was THE AVENGERS and its $623 million. BLACK PANTHER has made over $676 million (and still counting!).

Internationally, the film has earned $640 million (so far) making it Marvel Studios' fifth film to achieve $1 billion worldwide status.

Globally, BLACK PANTHER sits with $1.3 billion (and counting!) making it the top non-Avengers movie earner for the studio.

As the events of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR and AVENGERS 4 unfold and conclude and change the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — with many of the original Avengers actors' contracts expiring after AVENGERS 4 — the new roster of MCU super heroes is in great hands as T'Challa will be the new face of the franchise and lead the way for the studios' continuation of long-form storytelling for years to come.

Finally, and this should be no surprise to anyone, BLACK PANTHER 2 is confirmed and already in the earliest stages of development right now.

Written by Daniel Wolf, Founder & Publisher

Previous Road to Infinity War Posts:

Road to Infinity War - THOR: RAGNAROK Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: DOCTOR STRANGE Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: ANT-MAN Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - THOR: THE DARK WORLD Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: IRON MAN 3 Retrospective

Road to Infinity War: THE AVENGERS Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - THOR Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - IRON MAN 2 Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - THE INCREDIBLE HULK Retrospective

Road to Infinity War - IRON MAN Retrospective