Black Panther is MCU’s James Bond Says Director
Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa is meant to be the James Bond of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the upcoming Black Panther movie. Creed and Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler is helming the highly-anticipated superhero film for Marvel Studios, based on a script he co-wrote with American Crime Story writer-producer Joe Robert Cole, with Boseman reprising his role as the superhero Black Panther from Anthony and Joe Russo’s Captain America: Civil War.
Marvel has been experimenting with various genres and story types when it comes to their superhero movies in recent years. Their first attempt was with the Russo’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014, in which they developed a political thriller involving the Cold War. And then Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man in 2015 was promoted as a comedy-heist movie, while Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017 was conceived as a coming-of-age comedy. All three worked out quite well, and Marvel is now looking to dive into the spy genre.
“When I first started talking to Marvel, one thing they were interested in was for Panther to be their version of James Bond, which I thought was incredibly interesting and exciting. It was a really outside-of-the-box way to look at T’Challa. There are some Bond films that I really, really like, and it gave me the opportunity to go watch some other ones.”
Chadwick Boseman from Black Panther Poster Black Panther is MCUs James Bond Says Director
While James Bond is the superspy, he’s only as good as the team that supports him, most notably Q (Bond’s Quartermaster). In regards to Black Panther, T’Challa’s Q would be his sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), who’s a master of science and the chief technologist of Wakanda. That’s something that Wright fully supports, telling Total Film: “Yeah, why not? She’s T’Challa’s Q. She’s by his side with the technology he needs. The way she helps him is really cool.”
Anticipation is already running high for Black Panther, but Coogler’s goals with T’Challa may elevate the film for those who may have been on contemplating seeing the movie. Of course, Marvel has delved into the spy world before when S.H.I.E.L.D. was still up-and-running on the big screen (it’s still in operation on TV with ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). And considering the sheer number of gadgets and technology that Wakanda produces (possibly including Iron Man’s armor in Avengers: Infinity War), it’s not that difficult to believe that T’Challa could essentially be the MCU’s James Bond.
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