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Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, Black Panther is one of Marvel’s oldest comic book characters and one that an array of writers and actors have tried to bring to the screen for years.

It wasn’t until filmmakers were considering the Civil War storyline for Captain America that it started to make sense to weave the hero into the MCU and, eventually, his own stand-alone story.

“This T’Challa is different from the one in the comics,” co-writer and director Ryan Coogler tells Sun Media. “People who know the comic books like the back of their hand are going to get something completely different when they come to see this. At first I was a little freaked out about that, but then I thought if we can pull this off it will be something exciting.”

A fascinating blend of action and social commentary, Panther is the first stand-alone black superhero movie in the MCU with an African-American director and a primarily black cast, including Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira and newcomer Letitia Wright. Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis also appear as the film’s two white antagonists.

Coogler hails the Russo brothers, who helmed Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War and the next two Avengers films, for their unique introduction of Black Panther.

“In Civil War, a film that had so many moving parts, Black Panther was a hero you could latch on to. He’s a guy that’s going after the dude that killed his dad. But I knew it would be a challenge to take that character and make something complex.”