Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is heaping high praise upon the impressive cast assembled for the upcoming MCU superhero adventure Black Panther. A lot of great stories have emerged from cast and crew members from the MCU in the past couple of weeks via the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 junket as well as a visit by journalists to Marvel Studios. A lot of attention was paid, naturally, to the future of Guardians as well as Avengers: Infinity War, but not a whole lot of word surfaced about the February 2018 release of the Black Panther, except that Marvel screened some early footage of the solo movie starring Chadwick Boseman as the titular character.

In an interview with Vulture, Feige talked quite a bit about the film's cast and studio's unprecedented move to show footage so early, saying, "I’m not sure we’ve ever shown raw dailies before." Feige adds the reasons why:

“I think it’s two things. Black Panther is a huge part of the Marvel Comics mythology, and has been for 50-plus years. Other than his awesome, relatively brief appearance in Civil War, his history has been relatively untapped.”

Mostly, though, Feige talked about director Ryan Coogler's high-caliber cast. Joining Boseman in the film are Oscar winners Forest Whitaker and Lupita Nyong'o, as well as acclaimed actors Michael B. Jordan (Coogler's Creed) Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead) and Sterling K. Brown (American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson), Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and What's Love Got to Do with It Oscar nominee Angela Bassett. Feige says of the cast and crew:

“Every day, seeing that cast come together … it’s just amazing. Across the board, it’s the highest-class cast we’ve had on a first movie ... It’s really exciting that this part of the universe is so unbelievably diverse and looks unlike any of the other films that we’ve made. The cast looks different than any of the other casts that we’ve had. Both in front of and behind the camera, it’s almost entirely people of color, which I think is a special, important thing, and one of the reasons the film will be unique and as great as I think it’s going to be.”

Since Black Panther wrapped filming last week, hopefully fans will get a look soon at what promises to be yet another thrilling edition to the MCU. Disney and Marvel are bound to show footage at San Diego Comic-Con as well as D23 this summer, and a trailer can't be that far behind. Best of all, it will be great to see Boseman – who was stellar as Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown in Get on Up – realize T’Challa in his full glory in Black Panther. He was easily one of the most exciting characters to emerge out of the wondrous gathering of superheroes in Civil War.

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Source: Vulture