'Black Panther' Release Date, Plot: T'Challa Will Be MCU's James Bond
Fans of James Bond will have a lot to look forward to in the highly anticipated film "Black Panther."
Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler is going for an Agent 007 vibe in the first solo adventure of T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
In an interview with Total Film, Coogler talked about what Marvel had in mind for Black Panther:
Get Our Latest News for FREE
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.
Shuri (Letitia Wright) will be Black Panther's very own Quartermaster, whom "James Bond" fans know helps ensure the missions of the superspy are a success.
Shuri is of course T'Challa's sister who happens to be the chief technologist of Wakanda and a master of science. She provides him with the technology Black Panther needs. As Wright says of the role in the same interview:
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.
More on the "Black Panther" cast, another character to look forward to is Shaman, a minor but "critical" role in the film played by Nigerian-born actress Sope Aluko.
She warned that she is not allowed to say much about her character, but she talked about how she got the role in an interview with Okay Africa:
A local casting team requested me for a major role but I didn't get it. I auditioned four times and I had to be humble and try for a much smaller role because I wanted to be a part of the project.
They kept interviewing me for different roles, so I was very happy to see that I was highly sought after. The casting directors made me feel very warm after a 5 minute ice breaker about my name. They honored the Nigerian way of saying it, which made me even more comfortable auditioning.
"Black Panther" opens Feb 16, 2018.
