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00:05everyone I talked to anyone who will stand still and listen I tell them you
00:09know by all means bring the kids to this thing this works on all these different
00:15levels and that's I think the true success of this film the 1970s the first Black
00:24Panther series was being done there weren't obviously a lot of black
00:28characters pop culture was not where it is now as you guys doing this film I wish
00:33we had the backing in terms of people believing in the project they felt they
00:39would give me a book that was going to die the Black Panther wasn't an important
00:43character but the reason that we got to do what we did was because they didn't
00:47have time to read those books they caught on to it I think about three four issues
00:51in and then say hey wait a minute but it was too late it's already a novel and
00:56then I could do it what made it unique was uh just the idea at the time not
01:02only was this a black superhero and it was kind of a shock when he pulls off his
01:07mask and reveals himself to be an African king but he's also rich very smart the
01:14king of a kingdom and he single-handedly defeats Marvel's premiere family group
01:20the fantastic four and this was all being done and delivered to a largely white and
01:25male audience at the time so it was kind of a shockwave in a sense uh and delivered
01:32at a time of civil unrest during the growth of the civil rights movement and it just
01:37showed what a progressive thinker uh Stan was and still is uh to this day
01:51were fans aware of how unique he was was there sort of the the wonder of discovery of this guy
01:56there's been very few stories with the panther in Wakanda and normally there would be a bunch of
02:00characters the fantastic form had been there they had to be a villain so you you really didn't explore
02:05too much I don't know how many stories were done but if there was half a dozen that would be
02:09a log
02:11to have a character like that was highly unusual even in the 70s so it's not even simply
02:16revolutionary for comics I mean it's revolutionary in a pop cultural sort of way and in that sense
02:22it's sort of appropriate that it would continue to be revolutionary in the form of this film
02:27it was a continual battle they'd never been done before so there was a lot of you know people
02:33trying to get used to the idea that we're even doing anything like that for instance if they
02:37were a little bit afraid of a black villain on the covers I tried to tell them every character in
02:43the
02:43book is black whether it's the hero it's the villains it's the men it's the women well I think
02:49also what's uh different Stan just woke up one morning and said you know I'm gonna do this and it
02:55was a purely creative fun decision at the time that the torch was passed from Don to me I had
03:02a great
03:03number of considerations about how I would approach the character make it relevant and how I would
03:08introduce or reintroduce this character into a genre that that caters mostly to a white male audience
03:17so there was a lot of calculation about how best to introduce to Charlotte to that audience and update
03:23Don's version of it I kind of prefer the purely creative uh avenue but I don't know that that that
03:31exists
03:31anymore I suspect I don't know but I suspect there were quite a bit of eyes on this project and
03:37to produce
03:39something which for my money is so original that's their panther that's their panther and so I think
03:45like to have all of those eyes I mean I have no idea what you guys you know we're dealing
03:49with creating
03:49I mean Ryan you've you've said this before how surprised you were how small the team is at Marvel
03:54that it's not this giant corporation the lawyers aren't reading scripts because they don't it really
03:59is a handful of people really that weigh in on the creative decisions and it was the story they
04:05pitch that was interesting you know the big the character you guys created and all had a hand in
04:11combined with the ideas that they brought to the table what was compelling without those ideas we
04:17wouldn't have done the film but it was it was something that became undeniable and we had to do the
04:20movie and that's that's a good way to make a film when everybody's signing off on it for the right
04:25reasons they're not new ideas I think all of you have tackled those in different iterations along the way
04:33and it wasn't just me and him we you know we talked to Nate about ideas it was it's an
04:38entire group of
04:40people uh kind of pouring their heart into it and trying to find the best version um and and you
04:48know
04:48and Ryan led the way you know we were we were all working uh in in our capacity to to
04:54bring the vision
04:55that he had for the movie um you guys did a good job you really did yeah so I like
05:00to start start
05:01movies our projects out with like a question that I need to try to find an answer to you know
05:06one was
05:06the concept of what does it mean to be African you know and one of the first things I said
05:10and then I
05:10was like yo I gotta go to gotta go to the continent you know because I haven't been yet I
05:14had a feeling
05:14that you know uh and trying to ground Wakanda in the real world the same way that the MCU is
05:20grounded
05:20in the real world and a lot of your other stories you know um you know I would need to
05:24kind of get to
05:25get there you know I mean to see it for myself but I was also interested in this idea which
05:29which has
05:29been exploring the comics if if Wakanda existed you know if if somebody told me hey yo Wakanda's been
05:35here this whole time right how would that make me feel like Killmonger yeah yeah you know it's just
05:41that that the idea of the idea of wait so so this place has been there but all these things
05:46have
05:46been happening you know and nothing's nothing's been done about it you know that's that's a conflict
05:51that becomes very interesting so then so the other thing we got into was it was this idea of am
05:56I my
05:56brother's keeper you know um which is the question you know in in in uh or do you even see
06:02people as
06:03your brother you know what I mean like if if you you know in in this idea of self-preservation
06:08and
06:09and what that means for people who who are born outside of those lines so they got into a litany
06:13of stuff that we found to be relevant at the time you know colonization borders identity the idea and
06:18the culture of the african-american versus you know existing in direct conflict with the with the
06:22culture of the african so that's when we started to get into some rich stuff to mind that's when we
06:26started to get excited you went for the multi-levels of meaning I always hoped yeah we're doing the
06:32first african character in all these iconic jungle genre kind of things but then it's a hero's journey
06:39as well right and killmonger and the child you know reflect different paths and so it's like how
06:48is he going to redeem himself as a king and as a human being right the self-doubt set we
06:53all have
06:54and so part of me that was and that you guys went for that didn't just go for the service
06:59stuff
07:00I thought it was marvelous and Michael did a great job as killmonger you know like
07:04and by the way just just this quick aside Angela Bassett is a character I wrote wow
07:13I said okay I'm I'm happy I can die that's fine
07:18in that first act when we had that first vision of Wakanda
07:21I personally was not quite prepared for how moved I would be emotionally when I saw it
07:27I really wasn't prepared for that and it just kind of caught me off guard you know like I defy
07:33anyone particularly people of color to get through the first act of Black Panther without just being
07:40overwhelmed by this vision because you have now given us a model of not just what Africans should
07:49be or even what African Americans could be but what humanity could be if we just stopped our petty
07:56squabbles and started working together if nothing else you have given us this vision and given lots
08:02of little boys and little girls of all races this vision and once you've given it it can never be
08:10taken
08:10away because that's going to stick with them the rest of their lives and I thank you for that
08:15the genre of comics is is beautiful in that way and that like you know it's it's somebody talking
08:21about being like spokes on the wheel you know what I mean like you get your time and you add
08:25and
08:26somebody else come you know you know Reggie comes along and adds this character and this you know these
08:31concepts and it's you know so you really kind of kind of building man like I remember when they
08:37would give us the files digitally I'm like yo man give it to me hard copy you know I'm saying
08:40like you
08:41just give me something so I can feel the weight of this you know it's like I kind of wanted
08:44to like
08:44see the to see the weight of all the work that I've been that I've been putting in and flip
08:49through
08:49you know just flip through the pages you know um and it was you know it was so man it
08:54was beautiful
08:56you got this history where for us it was about not dropping the ball you know what I mean as
09:00someone who read these books since I was a kid like Wakanda was a character that I thought was a
09:05whole just a big thing to explore I would always tell the colorists and you know it's first I was
09:11it's always a Frank for Santa moon it's always a full moon there's always clouds cutting through it
09:16and then I would tell the colors it's never a pale yellow moon in Wakanda it's always like blood red
09:21or
09:22orange or pink but it's because I wanted it to be this otherworldly kind of it's kind of enchanted
09:29like wouldn't it be great to be in this place it's unlike any other place we know so that's exactly
09:34what we're hoping for yeah and for us it was that and how do we not make it too fantastic
09:38because we
09:39were really worried about not making Asgard again on earth which I think would have ruined the the
09:43sort of suspension of disbelief of this could be a place that exists you know and so I know that
09:49was
09:49something you were passionate about too like making it a tactile place you know I remember one
09:53thing you kept saying a million times was people need to eat like as soon as I see somebody eating
09:59I
09:59feel like that place exists because you never see people eating and there's fake places and it's true
10:06I made them completely sound absorbent interesting guess what I call them sneakers the idea that Shiri
10:16built these shoes that were inspired by back to the future was sort of that same idea right like
10:21Wakandan's also being aware of the outside world and pulling the things they like into it without adopting
10:26the culture of the outside world but just saying oh that's cool we should have that here well I first
10:30sat
10:30down with Nate and Kevin I was you know it was one of those things where I was like man
10:34what do y'all
10:35think because I know they had been developing this character for a while and it was like man we think
10:39he could be our James Bond and I was like huh somebody who's not white you know what I mean
10:45because
10:45they've seen that so many times but come in confident who can who can handle any situation I was like
10:50man I always love when I meet with people when they have they thought of something I couldn't think of
10:53on my own you know what I'm saying yeah and he's surrounded by strong female characters and
10:57allowing them to all be dimensional was something that was really important you know to not have
11:02them feel monolithic like they're they're placeholders but like actual people they don't always agree
11:09they're they're real human beings if you watch a lot of those scenes you know you'll see what it
11:13really is the conflict is you got a traditionalist with an innovator right you know what I'm saying
11:17like the reason the cue scene works with T'Challa and Shiri is because it's all she's making fun of
11:23her
11:23being old you know what I'm saying the whole the whole time like your shoes old your shoes are old
11:27you know what I'm saying like like you know you're trying to bring your old girlfriend on your new
11:31mission like the whole time she just poking fun at you like you know you ancient bro like get with
11:37you know what I'm saying get with the new you know you know what I mean like and it feels
11:41like a real
11:41family yeah yeah and and even within a real family there are divisions there are different you know ideologies and
11:49so forth but at the end of the day you know family's family
11:53yes I think Ryan what you did like in a lot of this is you reached into the heart of
12:00some of the things that you know I guess are not just African American but a diaspora
12:04so I think about like her pulling her wig off and throwing it
12:08somebody right like there's a combat move right but that comes out of a there's something black about that you
12:13know what I'm saying it's like you know something you would see in church or on the block or you
12:17know what I'm saying
12:17it was like femininity specifically black feminine right and that's a specific thing like that comes from a specific trauma
12:25right she's never comfortable with the way she's not comfortable
12:27what I found is so complicated about being um
12:32African in uh uh in America and this film kind of taught it to me man like like studying is
12:38the things that make us
12:42African we've been taught to hate so what you see what you see is is this this woman who's a
12:48staunch traditionalist who has her rank tattooed on her on her head you know what I'm saying her rank is
12:53everything to her and she has to cover it up with this hair that's not her own it was that
12:58contrast there if you know anything about beauty everybody wears wigs you know what I'm saying white women wear wigs
13:03and like I'm wearing one now
13:05yeah exactly yeah so so you know so it was like what's the first thing she would do where our
13:09cover's blowing now so this thing's coming off
13:12right you know what I'm saying and I'm gonna show you who I am now exactly the question you're talking
13:17about is that question of identity though and being proud of
13:21right right right how do you go from the process we've been taught to hate that's right what we are
13:26and not to have respect for it and right and so I think we
13:29you know we try I think we try to approach it with the same dialogue between African American and African
13:37that exists that that is terrain that we tried to to explore this movie's been such a success and so
13:45it's like it's so phenomenal it's changing breaking records and audiences coming from all over to see it all over
13:51the world and hopefully it will change how Hollywood approaches doing diverse movies but it's also the time of
13:59extremism in America with this extreme divisiveness where you got people on this one side yet here comes in the
14:05Black Panther in the midst of this and just shatters every expectation
14:10what do you guys think about that well what's why do you how do you think that that collision that
14:15this thing is so big so you know resonating with so many people worldwide
14:20I think the polarization is is is loud but overstated in a lot of people who are not heard right
14:27like one thing we always talked about and we saw this in test screenings is how well this movie does
14:31with with young people that's the people that aren't polled that's the people that don't have voices on TV on
14:36any channel particularly who when they see the movie they love it and they embrace it and they walk away
14:42with messages that I think are in there because you guys put them in there but I didn't think would
14:47resonate in the same way that they do so that the next time there is a potential for change
14:50change they go well I remember feeling a certain way about that movie because of what that movie was telling
14:56me I have to stand up and be counted this time
14:58were you surprised at how big the response has been
15:02oh boy
15:03yeah bro
15:07yes
15:10I would imagine
15:13nobody saw this coming man
15:14didn't they love him coming out of Civil War 2?
15:17wasn't Panther like
15:17oh yeah
15:18yeah
15:18it was a bit of a testing run frankly we were like well let's see how he does let's see
15:22what the response is
15:23I thought that you had it then because you caught the motion
15:27that acrobatic grace and poetry of the character and Chadwick just had the right voice and then presence
15:34well it's all in his eyes Chadwick does so much with his eyes
15:37yeah well and what was impressive is he was doing that work in Civil War in the context of this
15:42giant movie where there's a million characters
15:44and frankly we didn't have he was really working off of what you guys had done in the books because
15:49we didn't have a script for Black Panther
15:50so he was using the imagery from publishing as the inspiration for that character
15:54he would be the one person I'll put money on
15:58not a lot of money
15:59because
16:01but I'll put a reasonable amount
16:04you know what I'm saying
16:05like like like
16:06that if we call Chad and say man are you truly surprised like in your heart of hearts
16:10Chad might tell you no
16:12he knows how to make it real
16:14and he knows how to go against what you expect
16:17and from all the great female characters we have to the villains
16:22right
16:22whether it's Killmonger or Claw or even M'Baku
16:25like they're all so so big ass personalities
16:28it allows you to have contrast with Chad
16:30because his performance is gonna pull you in
16:32and they're coming after him every time
16:34but the added complexity is you created a villain
16:37who actually had a case
16:39because you know it's like we want to root for the hero
16:41but at the same time I'm going but you know
16:44Michael really does have a point
16:46yeah
16:47that was that was that was excellent
16:49the first time I picked up a Black Panther comic book
16:52I asked the dude I said man you know
16:54and the comic book show I'm like hey man take me to show me
16:56if there's any characters in here that got black people
16:58like the books about them
16:59but he's like yeah I got a Black Panther
17:01and I'm like and I see it I'm like this is dope like tell me about him
17:04he's this African king and blah blah blah
17:06I'm like man that's not me
17:07I couldn't relate to that
17:08and if like it was for me
17:10Killmonger
17:12being from Harlem and like Maroon from there
17:14he was a little culture of a way in
17:17you know what I'm saying like from my perspective
17:19this is before I traveled to the continent
17:21this is before I really I really I really saw
17:24oh yeah I got as much ownership over T'Challa there as anybody
17:27you know what I'm saying
17:28and I actually own both of them
17:30you know what I'm saying
17:30and I got both these characters living inside of me
17:35you know what I'm saying
17:35living inside I think T'Challa and Killmonger
17:38I live inside of every African American
17:40T'Challa and him end up at the same place kind of by the end
17:44but for different you know one out of empathy
17:47by different paths
17:48by different paths
17:48so the idea that we you know the idea that our
17:51our hero gets affected by our villain
17:53is something that was important to try to achieve
17:56and and and I think that helps with the kind of connection
18:00that people have to
18:01he's so pivotal to to the movie
18:05it's beautiful
18:08I have the the fortune or misfortune of writing Black Panther right now
18:13and I saw that movie and it was like back to the drawing board
18:20you've made the market even more viable for a more diverse set of artistic expression
18:28across cultural fields here
18:31and I think there are characters in the movie that people will find inspiration in
18:34and maybe try things that they didn't think they could do
18:36I mean I you know you read a lot especially about Shuri specifically
18:40oh yeah where's the Shuri cartoon that's gotta be coming
18:42but that notion of oh science can be for me well that's cool because I've never seen a scientist who
18:47looked like me before
18:48that's something I can aspire to because this movie is is to some degree about a nation that celebrates excellence
18:55there is an inspiration there that I think kids especially are going to take away from the film which is
19:01great
19:02there's someday is going to be something very special that happens from the mind of somebody maybe
19:05we saw this film and was inspired
19:08and that's that's really cool
19:10yeah when we see like Instagram posts and answers that that have come out from watching the movie
19:17and they're doing the kind of salute or they got their mask on you know what I mean next to
19:23their next to their parents
19:24it's like oh it's like oh man like that's what it's all about like we giving
19:28we doing our parts as as artists same way that y'all did y'all parts for us
19:33it had to be great and it was it's a great film and that should not be lost to my
19:39it had to be great
19:40if it sucked
19:41you know and you'd be like damn man what happened Ryan
19:46damn you let us down dude you can't you can't even come back to the block like that man
19:50you know but it was great you can go to any Martin Luther now man you know any Martin Luther
19:56I'm sorry that's right good that's right brother
19:59yeah
20:03you won't pay for me
20:05take my pay for me
20:07take my pay for me
20:08you said I spilled this glass for you
20:12yeah
20:15who need a hero
20:16Wakanda forever
20:17Wakanda forever
20:26Wakanda forever
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
20:27Wakanda
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