“How the MCU Was Made”is a series of deep-dive articles that delve into the ins and outs of the development history, production, and release of all the Marvel Studios movies.
When the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 withIron Man, the folks at Marvel Studios probably were not thinking about the Academy Awards. Sure, it would beniceto be recognized, but clearly the films that were in the works at the time —Iron Man,The Incredible Hulk,Thor, andCaptain America— were a bit more less “serious” in nature thanChristopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. And if evenThe Dark Knightcouldn’t land a Best Picture nomination, surely a nod for a movie about a Norse god superhero was a long shot.
But as the MCU matured and went on to become the most popular and consistent film franchise around, Marvel Studios —under the direction of presidentKevin Feige—got bolder and more ambitious with its storytelling, and suddenly Oscar recognition didn’t seem like a complete pipe dream. Indeed, despite more than afew naysayers, 2018’sBlack Panthernot only became the first Marvel movie to win an Oscar and the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture, it was also one of the most successful, best, and most thematically ambitious movies Marvel Studios had ever released. This is the story of how Marvel found its greatest success by embracing one filmmaker’s complete creative freedom.
Development on aBlack Panthermovie predates the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as an adaptation of the Marvel Comics property was previously in the works throughout the 1990s withWesley Snipesattached to the title role. Snipes remained a possibility when Marvel Studios forged ahead with its own adaptations, but his involvement become a non-starter when the actor went to prison for failing to file a tax return.
While the Phase 1 films were the priority for Marvel Studios in the studio’s early development,Black Pantherwas pondered as a potential film quite early on. In 2007,John Singletonsurfaced as a possibility to direct, and in January 2011 the film entered official developmentwith its first writer, documentary filmmakerMark Bailey(Pandemic). Around this time,Nate Moore— the head of Marvel’s now-defunct writers program which churned out scripts for potential projects — boardedBlack Pantheras lead creative producer.
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Marvel considered introducing Wakanda, the secretive home nation of Black Panther, as early asIron Man 2, and again inAvengers: Age of Ultron, but decided to hold off until they had a more firm idea of what the world of Wakanda was going to look like. Things finally progressed to a point where Marvel was ready to take the leap whenCaptain America: Civil Warrolled around, as the team decided they would use that film to introduce the character of T’Challa and the idea of Wakanda.
In October 2014, as pre-production onCivil Warwas underway, Feige announced thatChadwick Bosemanwould be playing the role of Black Panther in a standalone film to be released in November 2017. Boseman was offered the role outright, and as preparations got underway for his introduction inCivil War, Marvel began meeting with directors and writers.
In May 2015, news broke thatSelmafilmmakerAva DuVernaywas meeting with Marvel about potentially directingBlack PantherorCaptain Marvel. Shenearly agreed to tackleBlack Panther, seeing the superhero film as a grand opportunity:
“For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with? Because it’s really a marriage, and for this it would be three years. It’d be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?”
And for a time, she was ready
“At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary. These Marvel films go everywhere from Shanghai to Uganda, and nothing that I probably will make will reach that many people, so I found value in that. That’s how the conversations continued, because that’s what I was interested in. But everyone’s interested in different things.”
Ultimately, however, in talking with Marvel, DuVernay came to the conclusion that there would be too much compromise involved to commit three years of her life and career to the film, and she declined the gig in July 2015:
“What my name is on means something to me — these are my children,” she said of her body of work. “This is my art. This is what will live on after I’m gone. So it’s important to me that that be true to who I was in this moment. And if there’s too much compromise, it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film.”
DuVernay further explained that she and Marvel disagreedon the direction the story should take:
“I think I’ll just say we had different ideas about what the story would be. Marvel has a certain way of doing things and I think they’re fantastic and a lot of people love what they do. I loved that they reached out to me.”
It’s worth noting, as I mentioned inHow the MCU Was Made:Thor: Ragnarok, that at the time that DuVernay was courted forBlack Panther, the sometimes troubling Marvel Creative Committee was still in effect and Feige was still reporting to Marvel Entertainment CEOIke Perlmutter. Which means the creative freedom of the filmmaker involved would have been limited.
So it may or may not be a coincidence that Feige successfully changed things up in August 2015, shortly after DuVernay’s exit, reorganizing the way Marvel movies are made by reporting directly to Disney studio headAlan Horninstead of Perlmutter and dissolving the Marvel Creative Committee altogether.
By October 2015,F. Gary Gray(Straight Outta Compton) andRyan Coogler(Fruitvale Station) were under consideration to direct, and that December — after the successful release ofCreed— Coogler signed on to co-write and directBlack Panther. At the same time,Joe Robert Cole, who was part of the Marvel writers program and scripted movies forWar MachineandInhumansthat never got made, signed on to co-writeBlack Pantherwith Coogler.
Coogler was hotly sought after by Marvel, and he got the studio to agree to let him bring his own collaborators with him toBlack Panther. Traditionally at Marvel Studios, movies were made with a lot of the same production designers, costume designers, composers, and cinematographers. This is one of the reasons the MCU films can feel a little same-y in their aesthetic. But withBlack Panther, Coogler was given the freedom to bring onboard cinematographerRachel Morrison(Fruitvale Station), production designerHannah Beachler(Creed), costume designerRuth E. Carter(Malcolm X), and composerLudwig Goransson(Creed). All of these individuals were Marvel newbies, and all ended up landing Oscar nominations for their work with Beachler, Carter, and Goransson actually winning in their respective categories. Again, it’s not hard to draw a straight line from Feige’s restructuring at Marvel to the studio’s willingness to really shake up the way Marvel movies are made withBlack Panther, given the timeline here.
In writing the screenplay, Coogler and Cole drew inspiration from the comic book runs ofChristopher PriestandTa-Nehisi Coates, and Coogler aimed to make the film “deeply personal.” Coogler even sought screenplay advice fromDonald GloverandStephen Glover, who gave notes on the film.
Before he agreed to directBlack Panther, Coogler made clear that he wanted toexplore important themesin the film:
“The biggest thing for me was the themes of the story – letting them know where my head was at and making sure they would get on board. I was very honest about the idea I wanted to explore in this film, which is what it means to be African. That was one of the first things I talked about. And they were completely interested.”
Coogler took a research trip to Africa to prepare for the film, which Feige said was just as important and vital to informingBlack Pantheras any of the comic books. It directly led to the expansions of the idea of exploring what it means to be African vs. what it means to be African-American in the characters of T’Challa and Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan):
He says he started thinking about “this concept of us as a people” – meaning African-Americans – “being marooned in this place that we’re not from. When people ask me where I’m from, I tell them the Bay Area and there’s a sense of pride there. But the truth is, we’re really fromthatplace. The place thateverybody’sfrom.”
Since he was telling a story so intrinsically tied to the Black experience, Coogler made it a point to hire an almost entirely Black ensemble in front of the camera, but also behind the camera. Co-starDaniel Kaluuyafound the behind-the-scenes representation most striking:
“It’s a work environment I’ve never really had in this industry before. The majority of the crew was Black – or [certainly] a lot more than usual. For me, it was behind the camera that was the most revolutionary. Like, ‘Oh yeah, we can do this. This is a Marvel film, and we’re doingthis.'”
Another noteworthy aspect ofBlack Pantherthat felt refreshing and different was its unabashed feminism, as Coogler and Cole filled out the cast of characters with capable, strong-willed women like Nakia (Lupiya Nyong’o), Shuri (Letitia Wright), and Okoye (Danai Gurira). That was not an accident, as Coogler explained:
“That’s African, man!” Coogler says, laughing. “That’s my tribe’s world. My wife is a black woman who’s incredibly strong and smart – and the more I get out of her way, the better my life becomes. I thought that’s one of the things that makes T’Challa brilliant. He knows how to get out of the way of amazing women in his life.”
The entire design of the film was meticulously planned out, with colors meant to underline the themes of the movie. For example, the PanAfrican flag is red, black, and green, and the covert looks of T’Challa, Nakia, and Okoye are red, black, and green. Coogler goes deep on the color themes in the video below:
Morrison, meanwhile, worked hard to distinguishBlack Panthervisually from other Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and the fruits of her labor not only resulted in a beautiful film, but her becoming the first woman ever nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar.
Indeed, Oscars weren’t initially on the brain whenBlack Pantherwas being made — Feige and Co. simply hoped audiences would show up. This was a Marvel superhero movie, sure, but one in which the cast is almost entirely black, the themes tackle difficult issues like racism and violence in America, and the “villain” of the piece makes a lot of good points.
Filming commenced on June 27, 2025 and didn’t wrap until July 12, 2025, with production based mostly in Atlanta, Georgia.Black Pantherwas released in theaters on August 18, 2025 and opened to a much-higher-than-anticipated $201.7 million opening weekend. What was most impressive, however, was that the box office hold was strong week after week after week. People didn’t just see the movie and move on. They saw it, told their friends, brought their friends, and saw it for a second, third, and fourth time.Black Panthersoared to $1.3 million worldwide when all was said and done, and its domestic total of $700 million made it the highest-grossing film domestically of 2018 — yes, even higher thanAvengers: Infinity War’s $678.8 million total.
Bolstered by this spectacular box office performance and some of the best reviews in the history of the MCU,Black Pantherseemed like it might have a legitimate shot at some Oscar recognition, especially in the crafts categories. But Marvel had its eyes on the big prize, and quickly hired one of the industry’s top awards strategists to spearhead the upcoming Oscar campaign.
It worked wonders, as Coogler, Feige, and Co. were regulars on the awards circuit throughout the fall of 2018. The industry as a whole embracedBlack Pantherto the tune of seven Oscar nominations in total, and three wins for Original Score, Costume Design, and Production Design. Oh yeah, and it finally became the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture, scoring Feige his own personal first Oscar nomination.
Black Pantheris an unqualified success for Marvel and the superhero genre as a whole, but it’s important to note that its success is due precisely to the fact that a filmmaker like Ryan Coogler was allowed to make a deeply personal movie that was actuallyaboutsomething, while still delivering the thrills and spills fans expect from the superhero genre.
Black Pantheris a complex, deeply involving film about the morality and cost of isolationism. Through the eyes of Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger, the film dives into the specificity of the African-American experience, using Killmonger’s life of loss and hardship as a foil for T’Challa’s life of comparative privilege. Is it just for the African nation of Wakanda to stand idly by, in hiding, while those of African descent across the globe experience widespread hardship as an underprivileged minority? If one has the means of intervening for the betterment of one’s people, is one morally obligated to do so? These are big questions with no easy answers, and the fact that Coogler was allowed to pose these complex ideas in a Marvel superhero movie — in the same franchise asThor: The Dark WorldandIron Man 3— is still amazing to comprehend.
Again, it’s not hard to see that Feige being let off Perlmutter’s leash, so-to-speak, only improved the quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Films likeBlack PantherandThor: Ragnarokare singular visions. And then you have the boldness ofThe Infinity Saga, an epic two-part conclusion the likes of which we’ll probably never see again, which took nearly half a decade to put together.
Next week, we dig into the making ofAvengers: Infinity War.
If you missed my previous How the MCU Was Made articles, click the links below:
