10 Fascinating Facts About Black Panther (2018)
4. Several Big-Name Directors Turned The Film Down
It may seem genuinely hard to believe now, what with Black Panther making all the money in the world, winning several Academy Awards, and basically giving Ryan Coogler the ability to do whatever he wants for the next few years in Hollywood, but Marvel had a terrible time trying to find a director who was even willing to take the project on.
From the get-go, Marvel knew that they wanted an African American director for the film. So they immediately reached out to some of the biggest and most proficient names in the business, yet each and every one of them turned them down.
Filmmakers such as Ava DuVernay, hot off of winning Oscars for Selma, met with Marvel several times only to ultimately cite differences in creative vision being the reason she declined. Similarly, F. Gary Gray, coming off of garnering all kinds of acclaim for Straight Outta Compton engaged in discussions with Marvel about the film but ultimately also turned the job down.
It wasn't until they met with Coogler, who requested unprecedented authorship of the film from the studio, asking to bring in his own crew rather than using the standard house crew, that Marvel struck gold. They agreed to Coogler's requests and found themselves the perfect man for the job. And it all worked out because Ava DuVernay is great friends with Coogler and she still played a vital role in the film's editing.