Marvel Studios(NEW YORK) — Black Panther, one of the biggest movie hits of 2018 and one of the biggest in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, comes to Netflix today.
The movie, which made more than $700 million domestically and $1.3 billion worldwide, stars Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett.
Black Panther won praise for director Ryan Coogler’s world-building in creating the fictional, technically-advanced African nation of Wakanda. Michael B. Jordan was also a standout as the villain Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, which reunited him with his Creed director.
Another Creed alum, stunt coordinator Clayton Barber, “fought hard” to get the Black Panther gig, just to work again with Coogler. When ABC Radio asked if he was surprised by the runaway popularity of Panther, he declared “No. Not at all,” adding of the filmmaker, “I think he’s hands-down probably the best American director we have working right now.”
Barber, who became the stunt coordinator on the upcoming Netflix Marvel shows Iron Fist season two and Jessica Jones season three, was a champion martial artist before turning to Hollywood. His first big break was doubling Chris O’Donnell as Robin in 1997’s Batman and Robin.
“You know, between Blade and…you know Matrix and Charlie’s Angels…I just got into the business at the right time fitting into the skills that I had,” says Barber. “If I got in the business in the ’70s, I would’ve had to learn how to drive a car very well and be in Smokey and The Bandit. But I got lucky because I came into the superhero genre where we were flying across the sky on wires and kicking people’s butts.”
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