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What was it like when you got the call?

Stunned. But I had to make sure that Marvel was a place that I could feel secure in. I really didn’t know anything about the studio first hand. I had heard things second hand, and like any studio, you hear things that are bad and good. I know I like their movies. I had seen pictures of Kevin, but I didn’t know much about the studio itself. I met (producer) Nate (Moore) and liked what he had to say about the character, then I met Kevin and the rest of the team and I felt secure. I really talked to them about how I wanted to tackle the character and the themes I wanted to approach and they said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s make it.’

How is your Black Panther different from the one we’ve seen in the comics?

What I was most concerned about in Civil War was the fact that they killed T’Challa’s dad in that movie. The T’Challa I know from the comic books, Klaw (played by Andy Serkis) killed his dad and Klaw killed his dad when he was a kid, so this T’Challa is different from the one in the comics. 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.

This is the last movie before Marvel releases Avengers: Infinity War. Were there any rules?

No. I mean I wasn’t allowed to kill off a character that might be in Infinity War. But that wasn’t on the table, so it was never really brought up. We were doing our movie.

Were you aware of how important Black Panther would be to a generation of kids and parents?

At the end of the day, for the movie to touch the audience’s minds and hearts, you have to make a good movie. To make a good movie, you have to be very detail oriented and look at it in a very critical fashion at all times. You have to be able to look at things and figure out ways to make them better. So I tried not to think about the significance of it.

So what would the young version of Ryan Coogler think of who he grew up to be?

If I could go back and tell myself as a kid hanging out at comic book shops, not being able to afford the books and reading them until they kicked me out, that I was going to direct Black Panther, that kid wouldn’t believe where I’m at now. He just wouldn’t.

Twitter: @markhdaniell

MDaniell@postmedia.com