Hollywood actor Michael B. Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler have certainly left their mark on Hollywood with the release of Black Panther which dominated the box office worldwide, and their interview with Vulture shows that they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Touting accurate representations of African culture and achievements throughout history, they’ve set out to create meaningful movies.
Their ultimate goal? To take us all the way back to historically significant figures like Hannibal and Mansa Musa among numerous African leaders and Kings, who are noted for their wealth and economic influence in ancient times. The dynamic duo wants Hollywood to dive into the past when it comes to African culture and legacy, their majestic empires and kingdoms, their great civilisations before colonialization, bringing up stories from a different era – no matter how vast in time!
The duo had expressed their plans to “tell stories in today, or in the future,” with Michael adding, “or can we go back even further? There’s always one period that people want to go back to, but can we go back to Hannibal? Or Mansa Musa, destroying economies as he traveled [due to his wealth and gold]? Can we go back to the Egyptians?”
The two have been working together since 2013’s Fruitvale Station and they have also worked together on Creed and Black Panther. The two are in consensus about creating meaningful movies; movies that depict an accurate representation of African culture and its history. Both are tired of only traditional civil-rights-era biopics being made about Blacks in Hollywood. They believe that it is important for these films to be written by Black people so that it can accurately reflect their culture. Furthermore, these films should also be used as vehicles for social change.
See also: Africans built the world we live in today, report has Africa’s most influential
Michael B Jordan had commented on this saying: We’re trying to tell stories where we don’t need a non Black perspective. Often times in media representation of African Americans there needs to be a non Black character who helps them along their journey when they could do perfectly fine without them. This is why the duo are emphasising the importance for Hollywood to create meaningful movies where the Africans are self-sufficient and do not need outside influence just to succeed.
Ryan Coogler agrees with the notion that most of our heroes are not superhuman — most of our heroes come from within us. Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler believe that Hollywood filmmakers have an obligation to create characters from within themselves. Therefore, the African American know and understand their own culture and only them can accurately portray Black culture and its history. It is inspiring that these two filmmakers are striving towards making sure that African Americans get proper representation in Hollywood which has a significant influence on Black perspective globally!
