CANNES – The news at the end of “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler‘s 90 minute Q&A at the 71st Festival de Cannes was good for Marvel Studios on two fronts. First, moderator Elvis Mitchell never asked about Black Panther’s “death” in “Avengers: Infinity War” or whether Coogler would be directing a “Black Panther” sequel let alone any potential details about said movie. Second, the packed event was a coup for Coogler, the festival and a studio that is serious about kicking off a true Oscar campaign for the the soon to be $700 million domestic blockbuster.
I mean, Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, literally had a front row seat.
The festivities actually began on Wednesday night with a free screening of the film on the beach as part of the festival’s Cinema sur la Plage series. Fans waited in line for hours to get a beach chair to watch the movie and there was even an overflow crowd on the beach next to the official space. Coogler introduced the screening and you could hear the film over a mile away thanks to what has been a slightly drowsy party scene at the beginning of this year’s festival.
READ: “Black Panther” is ready to claw its way to Oscar and a Best Picture nomination
The Q&A itself meandered on a number of different topics. Coogler spent a good deal of time talking about the influence of his father on his work and how a health scare prompted him to meet with Sylvester Stallone about “Creed” before he’d even shot his first feature, “Fruitvale Station” (Sly said “no” the first time around). The filmmaker went into detail on his journey to Africa to research the film and how he left a “Disney approved” hotel to discover what it was really like living in Johannesburg (he also stayed with Lupita Nyong’o‘s family in Kenya). He shared that while the cast was almost completely black they all came from different parts of the world , but by the waterfall sequence (halfway through shooting) they had thought each other slang from each other’s native countries. Most intriguingly he spoke of his love for the female characters in the film and that they were “more important” the male ones.
“There is a whole section of the film where T’Challa [Chadwick Boseman] is out of the movie and you are just following the women,” Coogler says assuming everyone in the theater has seen the movie by this point. “And thats one of my favorite parts of the movie when I watched it. And I didn’t expect that.”
He continues, “Everybody thinks he’s dead and there is a good chunk of time left in the movie and the women actually save him and bring him back and that part of the movie you feel like you’re watching something fresh and new. That part of it was exciting. We have these actresses who could easily carry their own movie. Some of them have before. We had an embarrassment of riches with Lupita, Letitia [Wright], Danai [Gurira], Angela [Bassett]. And we were so fortunate. So when that part of the movie happens I’m like, ‘I wanna watch this movie. I’d watch this movie with just them.'”
When asked if he’s direct a solo Wakanda women movie Coogler without hesitation answered, “That would be amazing if that opportunity came up.”
What is really going to matter to Coogler, everyone involved in “Black Panther” and the industry is that the film is note a stand alone success. That it’s actually the first of many different blockbusters featuring People of Color. Coogler always believed films like “Creed” and “Black Panther” could be hits because of what happened with integration in the sports world.
“At the end of the day it’s a business and the business is informed by all these things that life is informed by,” Coogler says. “Colonization, institutional, bias, racism. All these things. The business was built amongst all these things, but the truth is what I kept telling myself is because I was an athlete. I’m not anymore. There was a time. Now, I’m like ‘Can I make it up that ramp without falling?’ [Laughs] But, there was a time not that long ago that my dad would tell me that owners of American baseball teams would say ‘I don’t know if we put black and hispanic players on the field that people would still come to the games.’ There was a time in basketball where there were no black people in the NBA and it’s because people thought people wouldn’t come to the games. I was born in ’86. I came up in the ’90s I think in the NBA everybody’s black. Everyone in the stands is usually mixed bag, but mostly white but they have on the black players jerseys. That’s the world I grew up in. So, for me, it was ‘Why can’t film have more black movies?’ People say maybe these films don’t travel but for us it was like, ‘I don’t know if that’s the case.’ And it was great to have partners in Marvel and Disney who were excited about that as well. We didn’t feel like we were the only ones banging the drum.”
“Black Panther” is still playing nationwide and is available on DVD and Blu-ray on May 15.