Marvel’s Black Panther graces the cover of Empire Magazine

Empire Magazine has revealed a new Black Panther cover created by the film’s production designer.

With Marvel Studios’ Black Panther arriving in a little less than two months, the film’s marketing campaign is really ramping up. Aside from a slew of posters, Marvel recently released a sweet new TV spot. Now, Empire Magazine has unveiled another sleek piece of marketing.

Empire released the first look at the subscriber cover of their February issue. The cover puts the title hero front and center and includes various shots from the film. It even includes some shots from director, Ryan Coogler’s trip to South Africa:

Image Courtesy of Empire Magazine — February Subscriber Cover

Interestingly, the folks at Empire didn’t actually create this latest cover themselves. That credit goes to Black Panther’s production designer, Hannah Beachler, who is now the first production designer of a film to design a cover for the publication.

Beachler also took some time to discuss her work on the movie, which she began in earnest by studying the comics and Ryan Coogler’s South Africa photos:

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"“I started by researching the different comics, and that’s where I started to understand the character and all the iterations he’s gone through. Ryan [Coogler] sent me all these images he took when he was writing in South Africa. See how he saw the country through his eyes helped me understand the vision he had for the film.”"

Despite the film’s massive scale, both she and Coogler found ways to keep It as grounded as possible:

"“We did a lot [of practical]. Understanding how Ryan works with actors, and for me as a designer, we needed to have as much of the environment there as we could. We were able to keep a lot of the blue screen to beyond the set. It was always about what we can’t actually create, you know?”"

Although it was a large task for someone who’d done mostly smaller projects up to this point, Beachler was more than ready to take it on:

"“I was psyched for the challenge, and honoured Ryan trusted me with such a big job. It was one of those things that if I took the time to sit down to actually think about it, it was overwhelming. I had a great team, and we took it one day at a time. If you constantly think about how big the film really is, there would be no way.”"

This is Beachler’s first Marvel film, but it’s not her first Coogler film. She previously collaborated with the filmmaker on his first two features, Fruitvale Station and Creed. And, while those films were smaller in scale, both featured impressive production design.

Next: Why the new Black Panther trailer is so great!

Black Panther promises to be unlike anything we’ve seen in the MCU or film in general, and based Beachler’s unique approach, that could very well be the case.

Black Panther claws its way into theaters on February 16, 2018.