Eagle-eyed viewers lucky enough to have seen Black Panther already—we’re still waiting for a preview screening here in Chicago—may have noticed a shout-out to Atlanta multi-hyphenates Donald and Stephen Glover in the end credits of Ryan Coogler’s soon-to-be-blockbuster film. Collider’s Steve Weintraub was one of them, and he took a moment to ask Coogler about the Glovers’ connection to the film in a video interview with the director. Are they friends in real life? Is Coogler a big Atlanta fan? We can’t rule either of those out, but the reason Stephen and Donald Glover were thanked in the credits is that they gave Coogler notes on the script.
“Donald and Stephen actually came in and gave me notes on the draft,” Coogler says. “They took a day—they were really busy, but they took a day and read the draft right before we started shooting. They had some cool insight.” He adds that the Glovers didn’t make any specific changes to the story, but they did help develop the character of Shuri (Letitia Wright) and her onscreen relationship with her brother T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), a.k.a. the Black Panther himself. “We were looking for ways to highlight a few more character things,” Coogler adds. “Specifically for Shuri, the way she pokes at her brother. Donald’s one of the funniest people that I know, so he had some interesting ideas [for that]. And Stephen’s crazy talented as well.”