Back in 2018, Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther hit multiplexes and instantly became a cultural landmark. It was not only a triumph for African representation in blockbuster cinema, which would be impressive enough; it was also a spectacularly made movie, with strong themes, powerful performances, and beautiful Afrofuturistic production design.
Black Panther quickly became the highest grossing non-Avengers entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as the ninth highest grossing movie of all time. Later in the year, it became the first ever comic book movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. So, here are 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Black Panther.
UPDATED (Jan. 21, 2020): An earlier version of this article suggested that Debbie Berman believed a male editor would have failed to notice the issue of having an all-male Jabari. Since then, we have corrected the article to reflect Berman’s true opinion on the subject.
Michael B. Jordan kept to himself on the set to stay in character
In order to stay in character as Erik Killmonger, Michael B. Jordan kept mostly to himself on the set of Black Panther. Since his character was hated by most of the other Wakandans, he thought it would hurt the performances to fraternize with his co-stars. Jordan initially auditioned for the MCU role of Sam Wilson (a.k.a. the Falcon) back in 2013 when Captain America: The Winter Soldier was in pre-production.
Sam ended up being played by Anthony Mackie, allowing Jordan to play Killmonger three years later when Black Panther went into pre-production. Mackie also got a role from Jordan when the latter dropped out of the 2016 crime thriller Triple 9.
Ryan Coogler originally wanted Kraven the Hunter to appear in the film
In the earliest stages of developing the story for Black Panther, Ryan Coogler wanted to feature Kraven the Hunter. In the comics, Kraven has been a long-time rival of Black Panther, so it would’ve been interesting to see him in this movie.
However, since Kraven is mainly a Spider-Man villain, he falls under the catalogue of Marvel Comics properties whose film rights are owned by Sony, and Sony refused to let Marvel use Kraven in Black Panther. Funnily enough, Sony also had the rights to Black Panther a few years ago and did nothing with the character, eventually selling the rights back to Marvel in 2005.
The battle sequence was reshot to include female Jabari warriors
Initially, in Black Panther’s big battle sequence, the all-female Dora Milaje were rescued by the all-male Jabari. However, in post-production, editor Debbie Berman noticed this and told director Ryan Coogler that she felt it detracted from the depiction of the Dora Milaje as strong female characters.
Coogler agreed, so he arranged reshoots for the scene in which he added some female warriors to the Jabari to make them a mixed-sex group. He also made sure to make the first Jabari fighter featured on-screen a woman. Berman believed it would be an important change to the scene. This small but impactful change showed why it’s important to have a female perspective on the team.
The costume department decided that three in five Wakandans would go barefoot
The costume department in charge of dressing the cast of Black Panther decided that three out of every five Wakandans would go barefoot. The other two wear shoes (“What are those!?”). The Wakandan language was constructed using a mixture of different African languages. The main one is Xhosa, a South African language that is native to Nelson Mandela.
It’s also the language spoken by John Kani, who played T’Chaka. Xhosa has been the basis of the Wakandan language since Kani’s appearance in Captain America: Civil War. Although Xhosa is the primary language featured in the Wakandan language, it also contains a lot of Kiswahili.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II auditioned to play M’Baku
When Black Panther was in the middle of casting, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II auditioned to play M’Baku, the role that eventually went to Winston Duke. After losing out on this role in a Marvel movie, Abdul-Mateen ended up in a DC movie, playing the villainous Black Manta in Aquaman.
Apparently, while Duke was studying at the Yale School of Drama with his future Black Panther co-star Lupita Nyong’o, the two went to see The Avengers in the theater. They were so blown away that they said they hoped they’d get the chance to appear in a similar movie one day. Six years later, they joined the MCU.
Ava DuVernay and F. Gary Gray considered to direct
Before Ryan Coogler was chosen to direct Black Panther, Marvel approached Selma director Ava DuVernay. These talks progressed so much that DuVernay even met with Chadwick Boseman and Marvel boss Kevin Feige. However, her vision didn’t line up with Marvel’s, so she didn’t get the job.
At another stage of development, F. Gary Gray was under consideration for the job, but he pulled out after Universal chose him to helm The Fate of the Furious. A few years before the MCU’s Black Panther movie went into production, John Singleton was attached to direct one starring Chiwetel Ejiofor as T’Challa. Ejiofor ended up playing Karl Mordo in the MCU’s Doctor Strange.
Killmonger’s scars took two-and-a-half hours to apply
Killmonger’s most memorable physical feature is the running tally he’s scarred on his body to count the number of people he’s killed. These scars were added through the use of prosthetics, and it took makeup artist Joel Harlow and three of his colleagues a total of two-and-a-half hours to apply 90 individually created silicone scars onto Michael B. Jordan’s body.
In order to sweat all these silicone molds off at the end of every day, Jordan had to spend two hours sitting in a sauna. Black Panther marked Jordan’s third collaboration with director Ryan Coogler, after starring in both of Coogler’s previous films, Fruitvale Station and Creed.
Chadwick Boseman was already proficient in martial arts
Black Panther had an interesting situation in that its hero had already been introduced in a different movie. Chadwick Boseman made his debut in the role of T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War, so Black Panther could jump straight into the action. Reportedly, John Boyega was up for the role of T’Challa before Boseman was cast.
In pre-production for Black Panther, the actors were required to attend “boot camp” in order to prepare for the physical combat scenes and stunt work. Boseman was already proficient in martial arts, so he knew what he was in for at this boot camp.
Ludwig Göransson visited the International Library of African Music before composing Black Panther’s score
Before composing the Oscar-winning score for Black Panther, Ludwig Göransson traveled to South Africa to visit the International Library of African Music in Grahamstown. This museum contains an extensive archive of the music of thousands of African tribes. Göransson also recorded local musicians across South Africa and Senegal to create the “base” of his score.
In order to create the final score, Göransson brought in a 92-piece live orchestra, a 40-person choir, and over 40 different musicians playing traditional African instruments. He used carefully chosen West African instruments to musically capture the intense rivalry between T’Challa (talking drum) and Killmonger (tambin flute).
Wesley Snipes tried to make a Black Panther movie in the ‘90s
Back in the ‘90s, Wesley Snipes tried to get a Black Panther movie made. He was first approached about the project by Marvel, and took a script to Columbia Pictures. However, Snipes’ insistence that the story take place in Africa was at odds with director John Singleton’s plan to bring the character to America at the time of the civil rights movement.
Plus, the studio feared that audiences would assume it was a film about the Black Panther Party. Snipes has said that he has no hard feelings about being left out of the Black Panther movie when it eventually got made, and he supports Chadwick Boseman’s take on the character “1,000 percent.”
