Chadwick Boseman and Ryan Coogler on why Black Panther needed an African-American director

Chadwick Boseman stars in the titular role in Black Panther, the 18th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Black Panther is the first black superhero to get his own standalone movie. Not only does the movie feature a predominantly black cast, it is also the first MCU film to be directed by a black director - Ryan Coogler. [caption id=“attachment_4340107” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Ryan Coogler and Chadwick Boseman. Marvel[/caption] In an interview with Variety, Boseman and Coogler revealed why Black Panther is a more nuanced film because it was directed by a black filmmaker. While the 41-year-old actor concedes that the film could easily have been directed by a white director, he doesn’t think they would have been able to capture the African American conflict in the same way as Coogler. His director echoes the thought, remarking that the primary reason The Godfather and Goodfellas were great mafia movies is because they were directed by Italian-American filmmakers. “For me, in retrospect, I realized a lot of what I deal with as an artist is with themes of identity. I think it’s something common among African-Americans. For us, we’ve got a strange circumstance in terms of our view of ourselves,” Coogler said of the African-American identity. Featured on the cover story of the latest issue of Variety, the two-some describe their journey into bringing the comic to the big screen. Boseman reveals he did not even have to audition as he was offered the role via speakerphone in Zurich, where he was doing press for Get on Up (in which he stars as the Godfather of Soul, James Brown). He also talks about the “suffocating” experience he had when he first donned Black Panther’s spandex costume but the re-engineered one was thankfully less confining. But despite the hype and the rave reviews, Boseman doesn’t want to think too much about potential sequels and would rather enjoy the moment and the fact that history was made. Read the full interview  here. Also read: Marvel's Black Panther: Critics claim Chadwick Boseman starrer is 'a correction for years of diversity neglect' Also watch: Kendrick Lamar, SZA shine in visually mesmerising Black Panther music video 'All The Stars'