Even as the MCU nears its 10th anniversary – and its 18th installment, no less – Marvel’s interconnected franchise continues to be the gold standard for cinematic universes in Hollywood.
Others have tried and subsequently failed to replicate its success (see: Universal’s fledgling Dark Universe), but when it comes to nurturing a cohesive and indeed coherent vision, Marvel Studios is practically in a league of its own.
Über-producer Kevin Feige deserves a lot of credit, of course, but as Black Panther‘s Ryan Coogler tells io9 (h/t MCU Exchange), Joe and Anthony Russo worked in close collaboration with him and his team during the creation of Infinity War – and, presumably, the untitled Avengers 4 – so that the spirit of Wakanda remained intact.
So what the Russo Brothers would do is, they would send their production design team and their VFX team to come spend time with me and our production design and VFX team. And they would ask questions. Even with their writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, as they were writing, they were thinking about, ‘What scene does this?’ ‘What kind of things in the Wakanda that you are building have these things?’ ‘Where would this kind of thing happen?’ So as we were really fleshing out Wakanda, we would tell them all about it so that their ideas could track.
Granted, that’s not all that surprising, given Black Panther is all set to become Marvel’s final pre-Infinity War movie. It also goes some ways to explaining the film’s post-credits scenes (of which there are two), which allegedly alludes to Bucky Barnes making a comeback in Wakanda.
In closing, here’s what Ryan Coogler had to share:
The Infinity War [team] would spend time with our actors when they could, just so they could get ready to do what they need to do in their film.
It’s reportedly 134 minutes long and one of the most accomplished superhero movies in recent memory, and we’ll be able to see what all the fuss is about when Black Panther makes its US debut on February 16th. Industry analysts have tipped the all-star actioner for a strong (and potentially record-breaking?) four-day weekend in North America, and we’ll be bringing you all the latest figures and long-range projections as the weekend draws near.
