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Black Panther Star Says Marvel Was Nervous Over Movie

Published

3 months ago

October 17, 2024

Christoph Rediske

Key Takeaways

Table of Contents

Marvel execs were apprehensive about making the first Black Panther film due to doubts about its success.
Lupita Nyong’o and the cast shared those fears, knowing the importance of getting it right.
Black Panther’s impact shattered stereotypes and became a huge commercial success for Marvel.

While the Black Panther movies have turned out to be some of the best reviewed and biggest commercial successes in the MCU outside of the tentpole Avengers flicks, it turns out there were some with the company who were originally a bit uneasy about sending the the franchise in that direction. In fact, it appears there were at least some higher-ups who were “shaking a little bit in their boots” about putting so much money into the first Black Panther film.

Lupita Nyong’o is no newbie to the industry and she’s likely seen different reactions to different approaches throughout her career. But how Marvel execs were so outwardly nervous about Black Panther stood out to her. Years later, she finally spoke about her memory of those early days before the phrase “Wakanda Forever” was being spoken in every Marvel fan’s living room.

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Black Panther Actress Addresses Marvel’s Concerns

The Us actress recently gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter, in which she discussed several different subjects, all focusing on the first Black Panther film and how much she misses her co-star Chadwick Boseman. She said that while Marvel higher-ups were nervous about the first MCU movie with a predominantly black cast, the film stars were anxious as well because they knew what was on the line if it wasn’t a critical or commercial success.

“There was a lot of fear, definitely from the executives … we were too because we were like, we only get to do this once. And we gotta do it right.”

However, once Black Panther launched, it did well enough at the box office and was greeted with great enthusiasm by critics to the point where the A Quiet Place: Day One star realized that the flick had actually done quite a bit not only to quiet the nerves about the rather historic film in the MCU, but also show that there was reason to go back to that well. Nyong’o said she and her cast mates realized that Black Panther, “totally shattered the myth that Black doesn’t sell.”

	Black Panther
Starring	Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright
Written By Advertisement	Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole
Directed By	Ryan Coogler

Black Panther became one of the MCU’s most successful films in its 16-year history. It made $1.35 billion worldwide which means it was the 6th-highest-grossing superhero movie ever. It also spawned the sequel that eventually had to be changed when its leading man, Chadwick Boseman passed away from cancer.

While Marvel did eventually release a reshaped and reimaginedBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever that involved several of the characters from the first film, as well as an offscreen death of the main character, there are indications that Nyong’o wasn’t wrong about the trepidations the studio had when the first installment was being produced. Back in 2019, Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter openly expressed his lack of confidence in the direction things were moving as well as the MCU’s growing diversity. Studio President Kevin Feige confirmed there were some in Marvel Studios who shared Perlmutter’s reluctance. However, those concerns were likely dashed after the more than billion-dollar windfall of the original Black Panther and then nearly $900 million payday from Wakanda Forever despite the absence of Boseman in the sequel.