Ryan Coogler Discusses Landing the Black Panther Directing Gig

Ryan Coogler

By Chris Tilly Ryan, IGN

Ryan Coogler has been talking about landing the Black Panther gig, revealing how much the character means to him, both professionally and personally.

Marvel announced that Coogler would be directing the forthcoming blockbuster earlier this week, so when IGN grabbed some time with him at the Creed junket, we asked how it felt to be working for the superhero studio:

“Oh it’s exciting man, it’s so exciting,” he enthused. “I think even more-so than it being a Marvel movie is that it’s a story that has a lot of meaning and significance to me as a filmmaker, as an artist, and as a film fan. It’s really exciting to be able to do something that’s this unique.”

We also asked Creed star Michael B. Jordan what he thinks about the news.

“Oh man I’m super excited,” he exclaimed. “I’m a big comic book guy, and Black Panther is a character that’s so interesting – T’Challa’s amazing, Chadwick Boseman’s a really amazing actor, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do together.”

Jordan added that he thinks Coogler will ground Black Panther's fantastical story in a degree of realism.

“I think what he brings to all films is a sense of humanity and groundedness to it,” he replied. “I think these Marvel films are so larger than life that I think it’s kind of cool to get a grounded superhero version of that. Of course with all the larger-than-life elements Marvel will be Marvel, especially with the Black Panther being involved with Civil  War, Captain America and that whole kind of thing, I mean I don’t know that much about it, but there’s so much real estate to play with and Ryan I’m pretty sure will find a nice way to tie it all together.”

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On our parent blog, the 'Nother Brother Entertainment blog you can read the reviews of Coogler's last two films Fruitvale Station (2013) and Creed (2015) here 

Finn's Backstory Revealed in Star Wars Related Book

There's a lot of talk in the black filmgoing community about the mystery that is Finn (John Boyegea) in the new Star Wars films. Much of it was excellently elaborated in the piece Why John Boyega As Finn Is One Of The Best New Characters In Star Wars, but below is excerpts from actual canon Star Wars materials, meaning it's really related to the franchise and not "fan fiction" etc. It's from the below book

I haven't read it, but someone on imgur has and put the info their site. You can read their info below. WARNING: Spoilers and Explicit Language

Star Wars Meta/Spoilers: Finn & The Stormtroopers

by imgur

Stop here if you are one of the 3 people yet who haven't seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Greg Rucka’s Star Wars novel Before the Awakening is A) Quite good and B) Explains much about Finn’s stormtrooper training and social circle leading up to the movie. 

In a nutshell: 

- Finn was trained in a squad of four boys: Him (FN-2187), Nines, Zero and Slip. 

Nines and Zero have nicknames based on their alphanumerical designations (Zero’s is FN-2003, Nines ended in 9s, etc.). Slip was called slip because he was a fuckup. 

- Turns out, most troopers have nicknames

- Why does FN-2187 not have a nickname? Because nobody really likes him. An older trooper tells him straight to his face: he’s an outsider. It just happens to some troopers. 

- Why is this extra tragic? Is it because Finn’s a shitty trooper? NO. He’s actually top of his little trooper class. He’s the fucking bomb -- with a blaster, with tactics, with hand-to-hand weapons. Phasma’s got extremely high expectations for him. (what a fuckin mary sue amirite)

- So why is this actually extra tragic? What’s Phasma’s one problem with him? Finn cares too much. He cares about keeping his squad alive.

- He cares about going back for his friends more than the mission objective SOUND FAMILIAR? 

- So Phasma tells him to stop coddling Slip or face consequences. He does. 

- And then: the skirmish on Jakku. A trooper dies and Finn loses his final shred of faith in the First Order. Who is that trooper? SURPRISE IT IS SLIP. Basically Finn’s brother, even if he never really fit in with his squad.

- And then: the first thing Poe does is give him a nickname based on his alphanumerical designation JUST LIKE HIS TROOPER FAMILY, NINES AND ZERO AND SLIP, WHO NEVER LIKED HIM ENOUGH TO GIVE HIM ONE. 

FN-2199 aka TR-8R

IN CONCLUSION the trooper in the gifset above who recognizes Finn on sight (and who has been meme-nicknamed TR-8R) is likely Zero or Nines. (It was confirmed by StarWars.com that "TR-8R" is indeed FN-2199 aka Nines-Cool Black)

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