How Donald Glover “Punched Up” The Jokes In ‘Black Panther’
If there was ever a movie that perfectly embodied Black Excellence, it’sBlack Panther. From visionary directorRyan Cooglerto the insanely talented cast to the diverse crew to even the invisible hands that helped create the box office smash, the film is a landmark moment for blockbuster filmmaking.
And now we know that one of those invisible hands belong toDonald Glover, the creator and star of FX’s excellentAtlantaand our new Lando Calrissian.
Outside of a minor role inSpider-Man: Homecoming, Glover has no ties to Disney or Marvel, so it’s kind of a miracle that the actor-writer-rapper extraordinaire was able to take a gander at theBlack Pantherscript. But he and his brotherStephen Glover, a fellow rapper andAtlantawriter, both gave their input onBlack Panther. RyanCoogler toldCollider:
Donald and Stephen actually gave me notes on a draft. They came in and read – came in and took a day, they were really busy – they took a day and read the draft… this was right before we started the shoot. They had some cool insight.
But what parts of the movie did Glover give insight on? The jokes, of course.
The multi-hyphenate may be best known at the moment for stealing every scene in theSolo: A Star Wars Storytrailer (despite having no lines!) as the charismatic Lando, but before he became an acclaimed actor-musician-writer, Glover was a comedian first. Glover toldEntertainment Tonight:
“[Director] Ryan [Coogler] was gracious enough to be like, ‘Will you take a look at this script?’ Which was really cool. Marvel locks things down, so we had not as much time as I would’ve wanted. We had a couple of hours to punch up some jokes and stuff like that. It was already there anyway. They had already done a great job, so it was really cool to just get our fingerprints on there a bit.”
Credit for the script itself goes to Coogler andJoe Robert Cole, but both Donald and Stephen Glover get thanked in the credits forBlack Panther.And now they get to bask in the success ofBlack Panther’shistory-making box office haul($201.8 million on opening weekend, and climbing) and its immense influence on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and beyond.
