7 Things You Need to Know About 'Black Panther' Director Ryan Coogler
Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is a rising star. Here's everything you need to know about Coogler, one of the hottest directors in Hollywood right now.
Image via Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Marvel's Black Panther is one of the most important pop culture events to go down in 2018. At the time of this writing, Black Panther has made almost a half a billion dollars at the worldwide box office, with almost $278 million of that haul coming from the U.S. The film has also been lauded as one of the best movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has been churning out blockbusters for a decade. While a number of hands helped make this film shine as brightly has it has (and will for the next couple of weeks), a lot of the burden fell on the shoulders of one person: Ryan Coogler, who directed and co-wrote the smash hit.
Many knew of Coogler's potential from his two previous films: 2013's Fruitvale Station showed us that Coogler could a) tackle tough subject matter and b) help Michael B. Jordan take the necessary shift to chart his course as one of Hollywood's promising young stars. In 2015, Coogler resurrected the Rocky franchise once again with Jordan with Creed, which also highlighted how Coogler could also tackle action scenes. Black Panther is another monster altogether; Coogler was working with a reported $200 million budget, five times the budget of his previous film. Plus, he had to work within the MCU, which means his film had to not only operate on its own as a concise story, but couldn't disrupt the expansive Marvel Cinematic Universe. Critics and fans have responded positively, further proving that Coogler was more than ready for this massive challenge.
While Coogler fans no doubt knew who he was prior to this film, it's easy to forget that Black Panther put more spotlights on him than ever before. And yet we all saw the reports of an incident at a Bank of America in Atlanta left the director in police custody after a teller suspected him of attempting to rob the bank. [Ed note: He has been in Atlanta working on Black Panther 2.] When asking for identification, he even instructed the officers to Google his name. For those who may not be aware of the director's life prior to destroying the box office with Black Panther (or being arrested for attempted robbery), don't fret—we've got you covered. Here's everything you need to know about Ryan Coogler.
He Grew Up in Oakland, California
At one point in Black Panther, we are taken to the streets of Oakland as opposed to the Harlem-based origin story of the comics. For Coogler, that switch made sense, as this is a city he knew well from childhood. Coogler was born in Oakland in 1986, and it was there where he fell in love with comic books, telling The Washington Post that one day he "went to the comic book shop that was by my school and asked if they had any black characters." That was when he was introduced to the Black Panther character.
During his graduate year at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Oscar Grant was fatally shot by BART Police in Oakland. That tragic story, of course, became the subject of Coogler's first film, Fruitvale Station, which was shot on location in Oakland.
He Went to School on a Football Scholarship
Coogler spent his youth playing football and got a scholarship at Saint Mary's College of California to play wide receiver. It was there that Coogler said his English professor, Rosemary Graham, pulled him aside to discuss some of his creative writing. Graham told young Ryan that he should pursue writing and getting into film; he was always a fan of film, recalling going to the movies with his parents at the age of five or six.
That one moment put Coogler on the path to attending the USC School of Cinematic Arts, which led to him creating a strong string of short films, all of which helped him become the in-demand Hollywood director he is today.
Football Prepped Him for Filmmaking, and Life
While the idea of applying football (and sports in general) to life isn't new, it's dope to see how much of an impact the sport has had on Coogler. He mentions it often when giving interviews about how he approaches his craft. Here's how Coogler described working on a set to The Undefeated: "As wide receiver, a lot of times you run routes where you can’t even see the ball. You just got to hope that it’s there when you turn your head. You got to trust your teammates to do their job. You’ve got to trust that the lineman is going to block. You’ve got to trust that the quarterback is going to have the right read. And then when… the ball is in the air, you got to catch it. All those things, when it comes to filmmaking? It’s direct preparation."
Coogler even used a football metaphor when speaking to Complex. When we tried to get insight on the possibility of a Black Panther sequel, he replied with his experience on running hitch routes and why he'd drop passes when he was thinking too far into what he'd do after he caught the ball. Essentially, he, and by default we, won't know until he turns his head to catch the opportunity. For now he's just focused on what's in front of him.
'Pulp Fiction' Taught Him How to Write Scripts
Once Coogler decided to focus on becoming a filmmaker, he had to turn his creative writing into scripts. Problem was, he didn't know how to make that stylistic transition. He says that he bought Pulp Fiction on DVD, and realized that the film's screenplay was available when you put the DVD into a computer. Coogler says he studied the structure of that screenplay and mimicked it when writing his first script.
He's Married
For anyone wondering what the relationship status is of Hollywood's newest hot young director, please know that he's 100% taken, marrying Zinzi Evans in May of 2016. Like Coogler, Evans is a filmmaker herself, working in assistant director and producer capacities on the short film Locks, as well as working on Coogler's 2015 film, Creed.
They currently do not have any children, but Coogler recently told The YBF that he realized he wants daughters "real, real bad." Why? He told the site that he "thought, making Fruitvale (Station), I want kids," but after working on Black Panther (which has a number of awesome women in the cast, including Lupita Nyong'o, Angela Bassett, and Letitia Wright) he realized that he has to "have some daughters."
He's Worked With Michael B. Jordan Three Times (And Counting)
At some points, certain directors can find a way to make a particular actor shine. Think Scorsese and DiCaprio (or Scorsese and De Niro, for that matter), or Spike Lee's work with Denzel Washington. Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are embarking on a similar working relationship, to the point where Coogler's three feature films (Fruitvale Station, Creed, and Black Panther) all feature Michael B. Jordan in a starring role.
At ComplexCon 2017, Jordan spoke about trusting Coogler with his well-being during their projects and credits Coogler with giving him the "self-confidence" to take up the mantle of directing himself. That doesn't mean the pair are done working together; Coogler's upcoming fourth film, Wrong Answer (about a 2013 standardized-test cheating scandal in Atlanta), is set to star Michael B. Jordan and is being authored by Black Panther comic book writer Ta-Nehisi Coates.
He's Loved By the Critics
Coogler's currently on a hot streak, at least when you look at film critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. According to their ratings, he's produced nothing but "Certified Fresh" projects: Fruitvale Station is currently at 94 percent, with Creed sitting pretty at 95 percent, and Black Panther owning the throne with a 96 percent "Fresh" rating. That's a phenomenal track record. With fans being just as happy with his projects as the critics, Coogler looks set to have a bright future that can only get brighter, especially if he continues to examine black identity and struggle within his work.