‘Black Panther’ Production Designer Hannah Beachler explains Africa architects, inspirations for film

Emmy-nominated Production Designer Hannah Beachler explained her inspiration for recreating a comic book country in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: the MCU’s version of Wakanda, a place of hidden civilization, ancient culture, and never-before-seen technology

Collider reported on their set visit from 2017, learning about how Wakanda came into being from Beachler herself. The nation pulls inspiration from all sorts of nations and cultures across Africa and from locations all over the world. Beachler went into great detail about her path of discovery for the look of Wakanda, Black Panther, and the movie’s various locations and people.

“I started poking around and looking at really modern architects who have designed in Africa, all over Africa, east and west Africa,” Beachler explained. “And someone who I really fell in love with was Zaha Hadid, who has passed away, but she is one of the foremost architects. So I started looking at her. Her architecture is very voluptuous and very flowing, very organic.”

Coogler calls the film an “espoinage thriller” with James Bond influences. Beachler was challenged to keep the grand scope of a Marvel film balanced against the need to keep it personal.

“…everything is big. And I noticed one thing that we always talked about in Africa was, like, you have no point of perspective because everything is huge. You’re like, I’m not sure if that’s 10 feet or 50,000 feet. You just sort of lose this idea of perspective. And the one thing that I really didn’t want to do was lose being in this big cavernous space and an intimate moment happening—and you feel like you’re in a big cavernous space and an intimate moment is happening.”

The extensive interview delves into the design and inspirations, read more Here

T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman (42, Get On Up) was introduced in Captain America: Civil War. T’Challa is struggling to cope with the loss of his father T’Chaka, but is determined to live up to his great legacy. When Wakanda finds herself beset by two enemies intent on the nation’s downfall, Black Panther must use his new suit and heightened strength, speed and senses to defend Wakanda and the rest of the world.

The film also stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, and Andy Serkis.

Black Panther is set to hit theaters on February 16, 2018.