'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' Star Danai Gurira Weighs In on Martin Scorsese's "Cinema" Debate

"We're bringing our understanding of our culture, understanding of our humanity, of our gender, of the complexities therein of this world that we're in, and all the specificities of this world"

Photo: Gage Skidmore (left)

BY Allie GregoryPublished Nov 8, 2022

Three years ago, Martin Scorsese bravely dared to ponder whether Marvel movies are or are not "cinema," and we are still somehow in the midst of this discourse thanks to an endless pit of MCU actors and filmmakers willing to defend superhero movies, the latest of whom to tap in being Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Danai Gurira.

Speaking with GQ, Gurira said of Scorsese's cinema debate: "Well, I've worked very closely with [Black Panther and Wakanda Forever writer-director] Ryan Coogler. My experience working under his helm, it's definitely deeply cinematic in every way I can imagine."

She continued:

We're not leaving anything at home. We're bringing it all. We're bringing our understanding of our culture, understanding of our humanity, of our gender, of the complexities therein of this world that we're in, and all the specificities of this world. We have to come in and pour all we've got into this franchise. And that's what we definitely, definitely do. We didn't get through either movie and be like, "Oh, that was nothing." No. It was all we had. It was all we had, and then some. So I hope that's cinema to somebody.

Despite Gurira's eloquent response to the probe, the debate is sure to rage on; Team Cinema still has backing from Denis Villeneuve, Francis Ford Coppola, Bong Joon-ho (kind of), Benedict Cumberbatch, Leonardo DiCaprio (and his protégé Timothee Chalamet) and more, while the MCU can count Nicolas Cage, Elizabeth Olsen, Robert Downey Jr., James Gunn and more among its defenders. 

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