Ryan Coogler, the director of Black Panther, breaks down the casino fight scene in the film, showing the amount of detail that went into its design. Via Slashfilm:
In a video for Vanity Fair, director Ryan Coogler breaks down the minutiae of the scene, including everything from the colors of T’Challa, Nakia, and Okoye’s outfits, to that iconic wig-throwing moment.
The Black Panther casino fight scene is a dynamic and sleek riff on James Bond movies — a franchise that director Coogler cited as a heavy inspiration for Black Panther — as well as a sly homage to the movie’s pan-African roots.
One of my favorite things about this scene is the confident camera movement from the first to second floor midway through the fight scene — showcasing the action in one long take. It’s a technique that Coogler has used before in Fruitvale Station and Creed, and he goes into fascinating detail about how hard it was to pull off here. “It took several takes,” Coogler says. “What we had to do is we had to float a camera up with a cable rig.There’s no green screen here, it’s all happening live and direct.”
There are some other really cool factoids, like the purposeful reflection of the colors of the Pan-African flag in the trio’s red, green, and black outfits, as well as the distinction between their different fighting styles. Pay attention especially when Coogler goes into the fighting style of Okoye — the true star of this scene. So much research has gone into creating a full portrait of Okoye and the Dora Milaje, and most of it goes unsaid in the movie. It’s incredibly fun to see Coogler reveal those details like the giddy fanboy he is.