20 facts you might not know about 'Black Panther'

In 1992, Wesley Snipes said he wanted to make a Black Panther film. He rode the film through all sorts of Marvel deals, up to and including when Marvel Studios and Paramount struck their deal in 2005. Snipes was still in the mix, and John Singleton was being considered to direct. Until 2009, Snipes was going to play Black Panther, but then, he had his tax issues and was not available for the project.

Not working for Marvel, Tim Story was directing Fantastic Four films that are generally considered mediocre fare. Story said he wanted to cast Djimon Hounsou as Black Panther if he were to direct a third Fantastic Four movie. A third film never came to fruition, leaving the movie landscape bereft of a Black Panther.

In 2011, post-Snipes but before anybody else, Marvel commissioned a screenplay for Black Panther. The gig went to Mark Bailey, an interesting choice because he was a documentary filmmaker. Bailey does not have writing credit at all on Black Panther, and it seems like his script was moved on from once the filmmaker was in place.

Vibranium, the metal that comes from Wakanda in the world of Marvel, was introduced to the MCU fairly early. They thought about also introducing Wakanda then, specifically in Iron Man 2. Marvel decided against it, wanting to explore the country and how to depict it within their universe.

Chadwick Boseman was a star on the rise, and Marvel wanted him in their world. Boseman did not audition to play T’Challa and Black Panther. No, he met with Marvel because they wanted to gauge his interest in being in their films, and Boseman said he wanted to take on the role of Black Panther. Marvel wisely agreed.

Marvel and Ava DuVernay discussed her directing either Black Panther or Captain Marvel. She honed in on Black Panther but ultimately did not sign up for the project. It came down to a classic “creative differences” situation between Marvel and DuVernay.

After DuVernay passed, Marvel looked to Coogler. However, negotiations stalled. Then, his movie Creed came out. Coogler was a hot name in directing circles. Marvel re-approached Coogler. Coogler used his cache and asked to use his own production team instead of Marvel’s in-house crew. Marvel agreed, and Coogler signed on to direct.

Back in the day, Joe Robert Cole wrote a movie script that got Marvel’s interest. They asked him about writing a potential War Machine movie, and when that didn’t come to fruition, Cole joined Marvel’s writers program. Nothing came of that, and Cole moved on, writing for The People vs. O.J. Simpson. While there, Cole was approached by Marvel to pitch on Black Panther, and they liked his idea enough to pair him with Coogler on the script.

Boseman was already locked in as T’Challa, but somebody had to play the antagonist role. With Coogler on board, it seemed pretty obvious who that would be. Michael B. Jordan had starred in Coogler’s films Fruitvale Station and Creed, and sure enough, he was cast as Killmonger. Jordan told Empire that he based his performance, in part, on Heath Ledger’s turn as Joker in The Dark Knight.

Gurira plays Okoye, head of the Dora Milaje, T’Challa’s bodyguards. Now, you may think she earned the role because of her turn as Michonne in The Walking Dead, a super popular show wherein Gurira’s character deftly wields weapons. However, Coogler had never seen The Walking Dead. He had seen Gurira in 2013’s indie drama Mother of George and cast her based on that.

The casting of Black Panther seems less rich with casting intrigue than many Marvel films, but there is one role where things got interesting. For the part of M’Baku, Winston Duke and Yaya Abdul-Mateen II tested. Duke ended up with the role, but we imagine Abdul-Mateen would have been quite good in it as well.

Forest Whitaker plays Zuri, and an actor named Denzel Whitaker plays a young Zuri in the film’s opening flashback. You look at those names and may assume that Denzel is Forest’s son. After all, Denzel played the young Forest. However, the two are unrelated.

Early in development, Coogler expressed an interest in having Kraven the Hunter in his film. However, Kraven is a Spider-Man villain, and Spider-Man is a Sony property. Sometimes deals are made between Marvel Studios and a Sony or a Fox, but Sony has had plans for Kraven for a while, so it’s not surprising that the character was unavailable for Black Panther.

Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War were filmed simultaneously and extensively used Wakanda. That meant the principal actors from Black Panther that appear in Infinity War went directly from shooting one film to the next, even though Black Panther had yet to be released in theaters to gauge the response.

Kendrick Lamar curated and produced Black Panther: The Album, a pseudo-soundtrack for the film. There are songs on it in the movie and songs inspired by the film. Meanwhile, composer Ludwig Goransson was one of the members of the production crew that Coogler brought onto the film. Goransson went to Senegal for a month to get inspired for his score.

For 30 years, movie theaters were banned in Saudi Arabia. That ban was lifted in December 2017. That April, Riyadh would host the first movie screening in a theater since the end of the band. That movie? Black Panther.

When you become the first film to top the domestic box office for five weeks in a row since Avatar, you know you're doing just fine. Black Panther became a true cultural phenomenon, and the box office indicated that. The movie made $700.1 million domestically, then the third movie to ever do that, and it finished at $1.347 billion worldwide. It became the highest-grossing solo superhero movie at the time (since surpassed by Spider-Man: No Way Home) and was the second-highest-grossing film of 2018 behind Infinity War.

Even since The Dark Knight, there has been pressure from film fans, especially comic book film fans, for superhero movies to get love from the Academy Awards. That wasn’t ever really acted upon by the Academy, but the pressure was definitely on to recognize Black Panther. The calls were loud from the general populous. Indeed, Black Panther broke through at the Oscars. It was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. The movie won Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.

In 2020, Boseman tragically died from colon cancer, a diagnosis he kept intensely private. His unexpected death complicated the idea of a Black Panther sequel. Eventually, plans were made to make a second film. Coogler returned to write and direct Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and it was decided that T’Challa would not be recast after the death of Boseman.

In February 2021, it was announced that Coogler was developing a Disney+ show set in the world of Wakanda. That May, it was announced that Gurira would be starring as Okoye in the show and that it would reportedly serve as an origin story for her. Perhaps due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has not been much news on that front, but it would make sense for the show to arrive in the wake of Wakanda Forever.