Marvel Studios director Ryan Coogler will soon film the Black Panther sequel at the Fayetteville-based Trilith Studios but, first, he has harsh things to say about Georgia’s new law requiring voter ID.
To get into Trilith Studios, Coogler will have to present his personal ID. A sign at the front of the facility says so. And that pertains to everybody.
The Georgia Star News visited the outside of Trilith Studios Saturday. Studio personnel erected a ‘Welcome” sign up front that also informs everyone to “Please Have your ID Ready.”
Marvel Studios films several of its movies and television shows at Trilith. Marvel Studios is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Studios. Contact information for Coogler’s publicists was unavailable.
Is it right that entertainers publicly criticize SB 202 while, at the same time, not publicly criticizing Trilith for requiring an ID?
Trilith officials as well as communications staff for Marvel Studios and The Walt Disney Company did not return our requests for comment this week.
Coogler, in a guest column that Deadline published last Friday, said he opposes “all attempts, explicit and otherwise, to shrink the electorate and reduce access to the ballot.” But he also said he will film the Black Panther sequel in Georgia, regardless.
“While I wished to turn my concern into action, I could not do so without first being educated on the specifics of Georgia. Having now spoken with voting rights activists in the state, I have come to understand that many of the people employed by my film, including all the local vendors and businesses we engage, are the very same people who will bear the brunt of SB202,” Coogler wrote.
“For those reasons, I will not be engaging in a boycott of Georgia. What I will be doing is using my voice to emphasize the effects of SB202, its shameful roots in Jim Crow, and doing all I can to support organizations fighting voter suppression here in the state.”
In his column, Coogler said that SB 202, among other things, bans mobile voting, requires a state ID or a driver’s license to vote and imposes a date-of-birth requirement on absentee ballots.
Coogler went on to say that voter ID laws in general discriminate.
As The Star News reported, Major League Baseball officials announced they will relocate the 2021 All-Star Game and MLB Draft, originally scheduled for Atlanta, to another location. They specifically blamed Senate Bill 202 for prompting the move.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said MLB officials caved “to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Trilith Studios” by Michael Rivera. CC BY-SA 4.0.
