Ryan Coogler Calls 'Black Panther' the James Bond of the MCU

If Guardians of the Galaxy is the Star Wars of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then Black Panther is the franchise's James Bond. That is, according to director Ryan Coogler.

Marvel's upcoming solo adventure, which stars Chadwick Boseman as the first black superhero to get their own film, looks to be a very action-heavy movie, much like the highly-celebrated Captain America: The Winter Soldier. When Coogler sat down with Total Film to speak about Black Panther, he confirmed that the spy/action vibe is exactly what he and the studio were going for.

"When I first started talking to Marvel, one thing they were interested in was for Panther to be their version of James Bond, which I thought was incredibly interesting and exciting," Coogler said. "It was a really outside-of-the-box way to look at T'Challa. There are some Bond films that I really, really like, and it gave me the opportunity to go watch some other ones."

Where The Winter Solider transitioned its action scenes into a political thriller, Black Panther will take the flair up a notch. The gadgets, car chases, love stories and everything will feel much more like a James Bond film than any Marvel outing has before.

Agent 007 would be nowhere without his gadget-creating Q, and King T'Challa will likely have his own. According to Letitia Wright, who plays T'Challa's sister Shuri, she will provide her brother with everything he needs to fight Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). Just like a Bond movie, most of these gadgets will be innovative, state-of-the-art technologies.

"Yeah, why not? She's T'Challa's Q. She's by his side with the technology he needs. The way she helps him is really cool," Wright said.

"I hope Shuri can help people. Maybe you're in school right now, and super smart and super intelligent, and people may be saying, 'You're a geek,' or whatever, making them feel bad. Maybe they can watch this film and be like, 'Man! Being smart or a scientist or super great at math is not a bad thing at all.'"

Black Panther is set to this theaters on February 16.