Discover the tribute paid to a famous DC superhero film by director Ryan Coogler, author of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
While Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is currently in theaters, the release of Marvel’s previous DVD/Blu-ray movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is fast approaching. For the occasion, its director Ryan Coogler returned to the comparison sometimes made between his feature film and another taking place in the seabed: Aquaman.
If the comparison exists, it’s that Black Panther 2 like Aquaman presents a superhero movie in which the majority or a large part of the action takes place underwater. We were then before the release of Avatar 2, and only the two films thus entered this “competition”. Coogler didn’t see the DC film as an adversary, quite the contrary. For him, James Wan’s film paved the way:
I’m sure that in cinematic terms, the fact that Aquaman came out and was successful, was an indirect help for us, [nous avons pu] focus on what made Namor special compared to Aquaman. Also out of respect for the public, who went to see en masse [le film DC] and who loved him.
“Obviously it was our duty to put blinders on and make our film, but also to have this awareness of what the market might want at this stage (…)”he confided to Uproxx. “I think it’s always better to give viewers something different, good and unique. We looked at what differentiated these characters who in their respective publications are still quite close.”
But then, how to differentiate them concretely? Ryan Coogler chose to bet on two aspects of Namor. First his look with his recognizable green boxer shorts and his ankle fins, but also his character and his story: arrogance, the fact that he is “child of two worlds” without knowing where he really belongs, but also very confident and very dangerous.
All this so that the similarities with the King of Atlantis from DC Comics are as inconspicuous as possible.
See you December 20 in theaters to find out if Aquaman and the Lost Realm will in turn have been able to account for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Avatar: The Way of the Water.