Danai Gurira addresses the whole Marvel vs. Cinema thing
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Danai Gurira defends director Ryan Coogler from Martin Scorsese's Marvel commentary
When Martin Scorsese first drew blood with his commentary on superhero blockbusters not being true cinema, did he know every Marvel actor in its very large stable of stars would be forced to respond to those comments for the rest of time? Perhaps it was all a part of his diabolical plan. In a world where Marvel is, for better or worse, winning the war, at least Team Cinema is winning this battle (annoying the hell out of MCU actors).
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Danai Gurira is the latest to weigh in, and needless to say she’s offended on behalf of her corner of the MCU. “Well, I’ve worked very closely with Ryan Coogler. My experience working under his helm, it’s definitely deeply cinematic in every way I can imagine,” she tells GQ when asked about the opinions of Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
“We’re not leaving anything at home. We’re bringing it all. We’re bringing our understanding of our culture, understanding of our humanity, of our gender, of the complexities therein of this world that we’re in, and all the specificities of this world,” the playwright and actor says. “We have to come in and pour all we’ve got into this franchise. And that’s what we definitely, definitely do. We didn’t get through either movie and be like, ‘Oh, that was nothing.’ No. It was all we had. It was all we had, and then some. So I hope that’s cinema to somebody.”
Black Panther is an interesting wrinkle in this ongoing debate, given its historic nature and unique cultural impact. It is inescapably Marvel in a way that Sorcsese would most certainly disapprove, yet the hero’s solo outing surely has more depth to offer than its team follow-up: the CGI-heavy, plot-light Avengers: Infinity War. (Anthony Russo, who directed Gurira in her extremely minor roles in Infinity War and Endgame, is quoted in the GQ profile as saying “There aren’t a lot of actors who can pull off that combination of an inner depth with a really remarkable physical presence and capacity.”)
Fans can weigh in as to whether the Wakanda-based films are cinema to them. In the meantime, chalk this one up as another entry in a long-running saga that gives the MCU a run for its money.