Film / TV

ryan coogler: “i’m making ‘black panther’ for my 10-year-old self”

December 20, 2017
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God really outdid herself when she made Ryan Coogler. On top of his extremely dashing looks and undeniable artistry, the filmmaker and Black Panther director has also consistently imbued his work with meaning, one that comes into clearer view with his work on the Marvel superhero film out next year.

In a recent interview with Vulture magazine, the 31-year-old sat down alongside Ava Duvernay to talk their relationship with each other and other Black artists in Hollywood, Afrofuturism and his vision for the blockbuster sure to be hit.

Explaining that the offer to direct the film came at a perfect moment of what it means to be African and experiencing colonization, Coogler explained that the film has turned out to be a message for his younger self and other Black children today.

“When I was 10 years old, I wouldn’t have thought there would be a black president, you know what I’m saying? I’m making this film for my 10-year-old self every day, and simultaneously for my 31-year-old self,” he explained.

“Kids today, their world is different from our world,” Coogler continued. “These kids are living in a world where there’s Ava, who picked up a camera at 32 and made masterpieces and is going to have a long career ahead of her and makes TV on the side. I don’t know how she does it. But these kids, man, I think they’re gonna save all of us, to be honest with you. We’ve got to do our part to keep pushing things forward, and to see a movie about someone who looks like me, who’s a king and knows his ancestry to the beginning and has an army of incredible folks around him who believe in him? I don’t know what that would have done for me when I was 10 years old.”

The ten-year-old inside of me cannot wait!

Head over to Vulture for the full interview.

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