Before the Internet became swept up in the infectious excitement of Avengers: Infinity War and its super-sized story, Ryan Coogler’s standalone Black Panther movie was the talk of the town.
It was an Afrocentric epic years in the making, and after sprinkling elements of Panther lore – namely Wakanda – all across Age of Ultron, T’Challa took center stage back in February, when his solo adventure dominated global box office charts on its journey to a huge $1.3 billion tally.
Critics gushed about the movie, too, describing Black Panther as a breath of fresh air in a franchise that’s since passed its 10-year milestone. And that’s just it.
Part of its global success can be traced back to the film’s ability to stand out from the superhero crowd, and one need only look to the cries of “Wakanda forever!” echoing around the Internet for evidence of Black Panther‘s impact. But when the time came to create Africa’s fictional utopia, Marvel’s pool of creators made a conscious effort to distinguish Wakanda from the gilded halls of Asgard.
Or so says producer Nate Moore. While promoting Black Panther‘s Blu-ray release, the über-producer sat down with Cinema Blend to discuss T’Challa, Wakanda and everything in between. And so, when the conversation spun around to Black Panther’s rightful home, Moore recalled his conversation with MCU architect Kevin Feige about the ways in which Wakanda must forge its own identity.
Our biggest fear, and one fear that Kevin articulated very early on was, he didn’t want Wakanda to feel like Asgard. This sort of magical place that was of another world. He wanted it to feel like it could exist on Earth and I think Ryan went the extra mile with his team to make sure that all of the textures for clothing were grounded in stuff that actually was worn on the continent, that the design of the buildings were things that were inspired by things built on the continent, so if you were from Africa you would feel the textures that felt real.
And so, the Black Panther team set out on a mission to create a rich, vibrant culture that’s steeped in the history of Africa, as the likes of Ryan Coogler and Co. embarked on location scouting and whatnot all across the continent.
Moore continued:
It was something that was very much an homage to the beauty of culture in and around Africa. We would never claim that Wakanda is an encapsulation of all that is Africa, but what we did want to do was make sure we were getting it as right as we could and pulling as much as we could.
You can now take Wakanda home on Blu-ray and DVD, too, as Black Panther is now available on home video replete with scores of extras, deleted scenes and special features – just don’t hold your breath for an extended cut.
