Selma director Ava DuVernay has elaborated on why she ultimately decided to pass on directing Black Panther, highlighting the sheer commitment involved as a major factor.
"For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with?" she said during the closing keynote at the 2015 BlogHer conference (via THR). "Because it’s really a marriage, and for this it would be three years. It’d be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?
"At one point, the answer was yes because I thought there was value in putting that kind of imagery into the culture in a worldwide, huge way, in a certain way: excitement, action, fun, all those things, and yet still be focused on a black man as a hero — that would be pretty revolutionary," she added.
However, due to creative differences, DuVernay ultimately decided to decline Marvel's offer. "What my name is on means something to me — these are my children," she continued. "This is my art. This is what will live on after I’m gone. So it’s important to me that that be true to who I was in this moment. And if there’s too much compromise, it really wasn’t going to be an Ava DuVernay film."
That said, DuVernay is still excited for the film and is looking forward to seeing it when it eventually comes to theaters. "I think it should be good when it comes out. I’ll be there, watching."