By: Alex Bloom
Ryan Coogler is a talented director who has already made a name for himself, directing Fruitvale Station and Creed — both films where he helped bring out magnificent performances from Michael B. Jordan — but he will forever be known as the director of Black Panther.
Black Panther has been met with critical acclaim and unparalleled levels of excitement; Coogler can definitely take a lot of the credit for this (even though there were many individuals without whom the film would not have been so successful, such as Hannah Beachler, who was in charge of production design). As a director, he did a fantastic job ensuring that each character was brought to life with strong performances from the entire cast. He was also able to keep up his streak of working with Michael B. Jordan, a relationship that is certainly beneficial to both actor and director. As Killmonger, Jordan delivered a startlingly nuanced villain — especially for a character named Killmonger.
Coogler is consistently able to create believable worlds, and relationships between characters that feel real in all of his films. While much of this is owed to his skill as a director, a lot of this is already in the scripts for his films — which he always has a hand in writing. With Black Panther, Coogler shows that he, along with writer Joe Robert Cole, are capable of adapting the existing world of the Black Panther comics without compromising it or their unique vision.
