Marvel Studios ’ latest film , Black Panther , will intend different things to unlike people . For film director and co - author Ryan Coogler , it was a path to search some of his deepest personal thoughts on identity and culture , but through the highly approachable entry peak of a superhero movie .

“ My whole life history I ’ve dealt with military issue of identity , ” Coogler assure io9 . “ Pretty much ever since my parent sat me down and told me I was black-market and what that entail — which is a strange concept to explain to a nestling . I could n’t imagine having to do that myself . I do n’t have kid yet , but it ’s something that ’s necessary for you to know . As you get older , you ’ve got to sympathise who you are and how people see certain conflicts . Or it could cost you your life , frankly . ”

Coogler ’s geographic expedition of this weaves throughout the film but starts almost instantly in the flick ’s 2nd scene . Just when the audience require to be usher in to the technologically modern state of Wakanda , Coogler or else cuts to a much more unlikely locating . In doing so , he quickly lets everyone know Black Panther is more than just a distinctive , fun , Marvel Studios picture show . ( distinction : Minor spoiler ahead . )

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

After a brief prologue , the plastic film opens in Oakland , California , circa 1992 . “ That was the first scene that I wrote , ” Coogler said . “ Writing it was a test of what this motion picture could be . ” The vista has a few crucial goals , the first of which is a unique spin on the tested and rightful mantra that you ca n’t guess a record book by its cover .

“ The interesting part about being dark is until you open up your mouth , people do n’t make out where you ’re from , ” Coogler tell . “ I think it would be coolheaded if you start on the scene in Oakland . You have these two black dudes , they talk and [ you go ] ‘ Oh , it ’s two black buster from Oakland . ’ And then at some point the guy rope switches and starting time talking with the African accent . ‘ Oh shit , wait , this dude ’s from Africa ? ’ You realize , ‘ Oh yeah , I ca n’t assure the difference . He [ look like ] the same the great unwashed you know . ’ ”

That idea is something that fascinate Coogler in his day-by-day life as well . “ Like , I could be a black gentleman’s gentleman dressed just like this , I open my mouth and I have an English accent like Idris Elba . ‘ Oh , this dude ’s British . ’ Or if I speak like I ’m talking right now , ‘ Okay , this beau ’s American . ’ Or if I open up my mouth and talk with an African accent , ‘ This dude ’s from the continent . ’ Just from seem at me , you ca n’t tell . Which for me is so interesting , ” Coogler read .

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In the Oakland scene , that idea is establish once we gain where the character ’s African accent is from . Of naturally , it ’s Wakanda , and with that entropy comes the institution of the Black Panther himself . But it ’s not T’Challa , the master lineament of the movie played by Chadwick Boseman . This is 1992 — so it ’s his founding father , T’Chaka ( played at this new eld by Atandwa Kani ) . A distinction between the case and the character was also a crucial message for Coogler .

“ If you forgather Chadwick first in that helmet , you think , ‘ Oh , the Black Panther is just this guy wire , ’ ” he say . “ But to be somebody else , [ you think ] ‘ Oh wait , this thing has been around . It ’s ancient . It ’s been egest down . ’ So that scene was a room to square all those matter . Quick . tight . It kind of serve the language of the movie . ”

But that ’s just part of it . Oakland is also the birthplace of the Black Panther party of the 1960s . It ’s where Coogler acquire up and where his conscientious objector - writer , Joe Robert Cole , went to college . Later in the movie , it becomes an even more crucial location .

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“ [ set out in Oakland ] was never a interrogative , ” Cold told io9 . “ That was Ryan . That ’s his nub . That was where that was snuff it to be . ”

This world of Wakanda and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is right where Coogler wants to be . Though he say it was still too soon to talk about if he ’d number back to make another Black Panther movie , there ’s no hiding what this motion picture means to him . “ I made this movie for rich personal reasons , ” he said . “ [ And ] the ownership that I feel over this moving picture is insane . It feels like a part of me . ”

Black Panther open Friday .

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