00:01Hi, I'm Ryan Coogler, director of Black Panther.
00:03It was important to me to bring Marvel's first
00:05African-American superhero to life on the big screen
00:07because I grew up as a comic book fan,
00:10later became a fan of comic book movies
00:11once they started being made.
00:13But I always wanted to see characters who looked more like me,
00:15more like my family, more like my friends.
00:17And that was kind of how I was introduced to the Black Panther
00:19in the first place.
00:20It's had a special place in my heart ever since.
00:22So when the opportunity came to make this film,
00:24I kind of jumped at it.
00:25One of the biggest things for me with the film
00:27was really looking at the theme of what it means to be African.
00:29It was a theme that I was trying to answer for myself,
00:32not just as an artist, but as a person.
00:34But we think that it's a film that's about humanity overall,
00:36that people will be able to connect with,
00:38regardless of where they're from or what their heritage is.
00:40Something that's present in the comic books
00:41that we really wanted to make sure that we highlighted in the film
00:43was that we have really amazing female characters
00:46that are strong and have appropriate positions in society.
00:48You know, you have Ramonda, the queen mother of Wakanda.
00:51Shuri, our lead scientist.
00:53Nakia, the international spy.
00:55Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje.
00:56And so we were able to make a society that function
00:58maybe in a way that we wish society could.
01:01At the heart of Black Panther,
01:02it's really about a man who's accepting his role in society,
01:05coming into his own.
01:06It's a film about family.
01:08It's a film about responsibility, about culture.
01:10But at the end of the day,
01:11it's a film about what it means to be human.
01:13Thanks for watching,
01:14and I really hope that you guys all enjoy the film.
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