How A Groundbreaking Female Architect Inspired 'Black Panther's Stunning Wakanda Scenes

It's fitting that Black Panther hits theaters on Feb. 16, as that's right in time for a holiday weekend. After all, the movie basically deserves its own holiday, and considering that almost everyone plans to flood theaters to see the new Marvel film, the upcoming days may as well be considered Black Panther Weekend. While planning your viewing of the Wakanda-set superhero film, it's important to decide whether or not to see Black Panther in 3D. If you're hoping to see the hero's claws reaching out towards your face, you're in luck, because the movie will be shown in 3D in select theaters.

Paying the extra fee to see Black Panther in 3D will probably be a worthwhile splurge, as the film is set in one of the most beautiful places in any Marvel movie ever. The fictional land of Wakanda — a country in Africa — is also the most technologically advanced in the world. You will see lots of futuristic vehicles, devices, and other forms of technology, and in 3D, all of these cool gadgets will likely go flying right in front of your face.

But even if you don't have the added feature while seeing the movie, Wakanda will still amaze you. The nation is a glorious sight to behold from any view, whether in 3D or not, as are its advancements. The fictional land holds a rare type of metal called vibranium, which is woven into Black Panther's suit, which makes him basically bullet proof and allows him to cut through anything with his retractable claws. Part of the reason why Black Panther, aka T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) must protect Wakanda is because it holds the ultra-rare metal.

The movie's production designer, Hannah Beachler, had to figure out a way to design Wakanda in a way that was both futuristic and unlike anything you've ever seen before. In an interview with Gizmodo, Beachler revealed that she found inspiration for Wakanda from "TED Talks and things like that. I talked to a lot of architects who were doing futuristic cities, who are designing Google cities, and anthropological architects, geologists.... I did a lot of research on Elon Musk and his work with the Hyperloop."

In an interview with Marvel, Beachler explained that she also ended up drawing inspiration from one particular architect named Zaha Hadid. Known as the "Queen of Curves," Hadid was born in Iraq and was called one of the greatest female architects before she passed away at 65 in 2016. According to Beachler, she wanted to base her designs off of modern architects who designed buildings in Africa. An article published by Archi Datum details Hadid's designs in various African countries, and they each have an awesome futuristic look to them.

Beachler paired her inspiration from Hadid with traditional landscapes throughout Africa. "The more I started digging into Senegal and Nigeria and finding things, while not necessarily futuristic-looking, very modern in their sensibilities as far as the way they’re putting together their elements and the colors that they use, I was struck by that," Beachler told Marvel. "I think in Kenya, Uganda — Johannesburg was another one — where no matter where you go, you really do see that they’re always keeping in mind the tradition."

All together, the setup of Wakanda looks like a perfect medley of ancient landforms — like that colossal waterfall you see in the trailer — and futuristic skyscrapers. Just from the setting alone, Black Panther should have you excited, but with everything else added to it, you may as well prepare yourself to have your mind blown. The movie is unlike anything you've ever seen before, whether in 3D or regular ol' standard viewing.