'Black Panther' Director Ryan Coogler Describes T'Challa as MCU's James Bond

By Vianne Ilagan, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Black Panther may not be one of the most popular superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there is more to him than most people know. In fact, "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler recently said that T'Challa a.k.a. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) is the James Bond of the MCU.

In the latest issue of Total Film, as quoted by Games Radar, Coogler, who also directed "Creed" and "Fruitvale Station," revealed: "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."

Coogler's statement about Marvel wanting him to make Black Panther resemble James Bond shouldn't come as a surprise for fans. For years, the studio has been experimenting with various genres and narratives in crafting its superhero films. For instance, in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," Marvel experimented with the original story to make it more of a political thriller that involves the Cold War.

The Black Panther debuted in the MCU in 2016, when he was introduced in "Captain America: Civil War." His standalone film is set to arrive this year and will be MCU's first solo film led by a black superhero. In the film, T'Challa will return to his avant-garde African country Wakanda to become its king following the death of his father. Considering how technologically advanced the land of Wakanda is, it's not far from possible to think that T'Challa could be the MCU's 007 a.k.a. James Bond. If James Bond had his own Quartermaster, T'Challa has his sister Shuri (Letitia Wright) as his support system.

"Black Panther" will open in theaters on Feb. 13.