Template:Distinguish2

Black Panther is an upcoming American superhero film featuring the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is intended to be the eighteenth film installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film is to be directed by Ryan Coogler from a screenplay by himself and Joe Robert Cole, and stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o and Danai Gurira. In Black Panther, two enemies challenge Black Panther's leadership, forcing him to team up with the C.I.A. and the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's special forces, to stop them.

Wesley Snipes first mentioned his intention to work on a Black Panther film in 1992, with that project going through multiple iterations over the next decade but never coming to fruition. A Black Panther film was announced as one of the ten Marvel films that would be developed by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures in September 2005, with Mark Bailey hired to write a script in January 2011. Black Panther was officially announced in October 2014, along with Boseman in the title role. By the end of 2015, Cole and Coogler had both joined the film, and additional cast members came on board beginning in May 2016. The film is scheduled to begin principal photography in early 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Black Panther is set to be released in North America on February 16, 2018.

Following the events of Captain America: Civil War,^[1] Black Panther teams up with the C.I.A. and the Dora Milaje, Wakanda's special forces, to stop two enemies from challenging his leadership.^[2]

• Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther:

The king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda.^[1][3][4][5] Producer Kevin Feige described the character as "a bit of a prince, he may even become a bit of a king, but it's all about how this isolationist country [of Wakanda] meets the world. Maybe it goes well, maybe it doesn't."^[4] Screenwriter Joe Robert Cole added that after the events of Captain America: Civil War and the death of his father, "...we’ll be able to see him mourning and him starting to take command as king of his own nation."^[1] Boseman said that T'Challa is "very much aware of the responsibility" and "how important his role and his position is" as the leader of Wakanda.^[6] About landing the role, Boseman said, "It wasn't really an audition process. It was more of a discussion about what they wanted to do and how I saw it and what I wanted to do. It was more of a feeling out process".^[7] Boseman signed a five-film contract with Marvel.^[8]

• Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger:^[9][10] On playing a villain, Jordan said, "I’d been wanting to play a villain for a while, it seemed about time, and this is the right place to do it."^[11]
• Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia: A member of the Dora Milaje, who serve as T'Challa's bodyguards.^[10][12]
• Danai Gurira as Okoye: The head of the Dora Milaje.^[10][13]

In June 1992, Wesley Snipes announced his intention to make a film about Black Panther,^[15] and by August, had begun working on the film.^[16] In July 1993, Snipes announced plans to begin The Black Panther after starring in Demolition Man.^[17] Snipes said in August 1993, "We have a wide-open field for comic book characters on the big screen and we've yet to have a major black comic book hero on the screen. Especially the Black Panther, which is such a rich, interesting life. It's a dream come true to originate something that nobody's ever seen before." Snipes expressed interest in making sequels to The Black Panther.^[18] In January 1994, Snipes entered talks with Columbia Pictures to portray Black Panther,^[19] and by March, Stan Lee joined the development process for the film,^[20] which entered early development by May.^[21] In January 1996, Lee said that he had not been pleased with the scripts for the project.^[22]

In July 1997, Black Panther was listed as part of Marvel Comics' film slate.^[23] In March 1998, Marvel hired Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti to work on Black Panther.^[24] In August 1998, corporate problems at Marvel had put the project on hold.^[25] In August 1999, Snipes was set to produce, and possibly star, in the film.^[26] In May 2000, Artisan Entertainment announced a deal with Marvel to coproduce, finance and distribute a film based on Black Panther.^[27]

In March 2002, Snipes said he planned to do Blade 3 or Black Panther in 2003,^[28] and reiterated his interest five months later.^[29] In July 2004, Blade 3 director David S. Goyer said Snipes would not likely be Black Panther, saying, "He's already so entrenched as Blade that another Marvel hero might be overkill."^[30] In September 2005, Marvel chairman and CEO Avi Arad announced Black Panther as one of the ten Marvel films that would be developed by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures.^[31] In June 2006, Snipes told Men's Fitness magazine that much work had been done towards a film, and that he hoped to have a director soon.^[32] In February 2007, Kevin Feige, president of production for Marvel Studios, stated that Black Panther was on Marvel's development slate.^[33] In July 2007, director John Singleton said that he was approached for Black Panther.^[34] In March 2009, Marvel hired writers to help come up with creative ways to launch its lesser-known properties, such as Black Panther, Cable, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, Nighthawk and Vision;^[35] Nate Moore, the head of the writers program, helped oversee the development of the Black Panther film.^[36] In January 2011, Marvel Studios hired documentary filmmaker Mark Bailey to write a script for Black Panther to be produced by Feige.^[37] In October 2013, Feige said the film is "absolutely in development", adding, "When you have something as rich as Wakanda and [Black Panther's] backstory — and clearly Vibranium's been introduced in the [Marvel Cinematic U]niverse already — I don't know when it will be exactly, but we certainly have plans to bring him to life some day."^[38]

In October 2014, Feige announced that the film would be released on November 3, 2017 and that Chadwick Boseman would play Black Panther.^[3][4] Feige said that Marvel is considering minority filmmakers for the director and writer, saying "we're doing what we always do, which is looking for the best filmmakers, the best writers, the best directors possible. So I'm not going to say for sure that we're going to hire from any one demographic, but we're meeting a lot of people." He added that the studio has been meeting with Reginald Hudlin, former writer of the Black Panther comics in the mid-2000s.^[39]

In January 2015, Boseman stated that the film is going through a "brainstorming phase" explaining, "I think right now, it's just going through the possibilities of what he can do... trying to figure out what it looks like and what it should feel like in certain moments. But just going through [the material], because there's always a difference from one story to the next of who he is -- trying to find a way to merge those things together."^[40] In February 2015, Marvel pushed backed the released date to July 6, 2018.^[41] In April 2015, Feige revealed he would be meeting with directors after the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron at the end of the month, and that "casting is already underway in many ways. Some of which [is known], some of which [is not]."^[42]

By May 2015, Marvel had discussions with Ava DuVernay to direct this film or Captain Marvel.^[43] In June, Feige confirmed that he had meet with DuVernay amongst a number of other directors and stated he expected a decision to made by mid- to late-2015.^[44] In early July 2015, DuVernay stated she had passed on directing the film saying, "Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they're fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me... [but] we had different ideas about what the story would be... In the end, it comes down to story and perspective. And we just didn't see eye to eye. Better for me to realize that now than cite creative differences later."^[45] Later in the month DuVernay added,

"For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with? Because it's really a marriage, and for this it would be three years. It'd be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do? At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary. These Marvel films go everywhere from Shanghai to Uganda, and nothing that I probably will make will reach that many people, so I found value in that. That's how the conversations continued, because that's what I was interested in. But everyone's interested in different things... [I]t's important to me that [my work] be true to who I was in this moment. And if there's too much compromise, it really wasn't going to be an Ava DuVernay film."^[46]

By October 2015, F. Gary Gray was being considered to direct the film before he was chosen to direct Fast & Furious 8,^[47][48] while Joe Robert Cole, a member of Marvel’s in-house writer’s program, was nearing a deal to write the screenplay.^[49] Also in the month, Marvel changed the release date once again, moving it to February 16, 2018.^[50] By December 2015, Ryan Coogler entered negotiations to direct the film. Negotiations with Coogler had cooled since first meeting with Marvel in the third quarter of 2015, but were reignited due to the successful opening of Coogler's film Creed.^[51] At the end of the month, Feige described the film as "a big geopolitical action adventure that focuses on the family and royal struggle of T'Challa in Wakanda, and what it means to be a king." Fiege also stated that the film was "a very important" link to Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel,^[52][53] and would be the first Marvel Studios production to feature a "primarily African-American cast".^[54][53]

In January 2016, Marvel confirmed that Coogler would direct Black Panther.^[55] On directing the film, Coogler, who grew up reading comic books, stated Black Panther "is just as personal to me as the last couple of films I was able to make. I feel really fortunate to be able to work on something I’m this passionate about again."^[56][57] In February 2016, Cole described the responsibility of writing the screenplay for Black Panther in light of the social issues black communities were dealing with, saying, "Black Panther is a historic opportunity to be a part of something important and special, particularly at a time when African-Americans are affirming their identities while dealing with vilification and dehumanization. The image of a black hero on this scale is just really exciting." He also added that it was important to approach the themes of the film "from a perspective that is rooted in the cultures of the [African] continent". Knowing the film was an important platform for the black communities, Cole added, "In terms of [T'Challa's] culture, we're thinking about where we are locating Wakanda within the continent, and what the people and history of that region are like. It's a process of investigation to help inform the story at this point. But we are going to be engaged with consultants who are experts on the continent and on African history and politics."^[58] Cole later stated, "Africa is such a huge nation. There are so many countries, each of them with different histories, mythologies, and cultures but what we tried to do was hone in on some of the history, some of the cultural influences and then extrapolate out in our technology, extrapolate out in how we see Wakanda and the different parts of the country and the culture of the country as well. So we wanted to root it in reality first and then build out from there, so we’d feel pretty authentic and grounded."^[1]

In April 2016, Feige stated that Coogler was also working on the script, and that filming would begin at the "very beginning of next year".^[59] On how the film would pick up the character after his introduction in Captain America: Civil War, Feige said, "We can [move forward from here]. We can deal with the aftereffects of Captain America: Civil War and going back to Wakanda, and he’s dealing with a geopolitical landscape that’s completely different now," while also adding that Civil War laid "the groundwork" for T'Challa's morality.^[60] For Civil War, the Xhosa language served as the basis of the Wakandan language, with Boseman being taught the language by John Kani, who plays T'Challa's father T'Chaka in that film, as Kani speaks the language.^[61] By mid-May, Lupita Nyong'o entered negotiations to star as T'Challa's love interest,^[62] while Michael B. Jordan joined Black Panther in an undisclosed role, after previously working with Coogler on Fruitvale Station and Creed.^[9] That month, Coogler discussed his approach to working in with the MCU while still creating "a Ryan Coogler movie", saying,

It's a specific challenge. What Marvel’s doing, and what you see a lot of studios doing now that Marvel has done it so successfully, is making content that exists in a particular universe, where the characters tie in and crossover, and I think that’s a great creative challenge to me—to make this movie as personal as possible. It’s going to be my most personal movie to date, which is crazy to say, but it’s completely the case. I’m obsessed with this character and this story right now, and I think it’s going to be very unique and still fit into the overall narrative that they’re establishing. I grew up as a comic book fan, and the same things used to happen in the comic books. You’d have Wolverine’s books, and they’d be so much darker and more brutal than the X-Men books, but they’d still fit in when you open the pages of the X-Men book. It’s new to movies, but it’s not new to storytelling.^[63]

Later in May, producer Nate Moore revealed that filming would occur in Atlanta, Georgia, with Marvel "definitely investigating shooting in Africa" as well.^[36]

At San Diego Comic-Con International 2016, Nyong'o was confirmed for the film, in the role of Nakia, while Jordan's role was revealed to be Erik Killmonger. Additionally, Danai Gurira was revealed to have been cast as Okoye, and Coogler revealed that filming would begin in January 2017.^[10][13] Coogler also noted that he and Cole were inspired by Ta-Nehisi Coates' run on Black Panther, who was writing the comic at the time, saying "what he’s doing with Panther is just incredible. You can really see his background as a poet in some of the dialogue. And what Brian Stelfreeze is doing with the visuals in that book. And some of the questions that it’s asking."^[14]

Principal photography is expected to begin in January 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.^[59][36][13]

Black Panther is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on February 9, 2018,^[53] and in North America on February 16, 2018.^[50] It was originally scheduled to be released on November 3, 2017,^[3] before moving in February 2015 to July 6, 2018 to accommodate Spider-Man: Homecoming.^[41] In October 2015, it moved again to accommodate Ant-Man and the Wasp.^[50]

• Black Panther at IMDb
• Black Panther at Box Office Mojo
• Black Panther at Rotten Tomatoes
• Black Panther at Metacritic

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Black Panther (film).