Movie Theater's 'Black Panther' Marquee Vandalized With Racist Slur

U.S. Marines attending a weekend showing of “Black Panther” at their base in Okinawa, Japan, were confronted with a theater marquee showing a racist slur instead of the movie’s title.

Military officials were investigating how someone gained access to the theater roof at Camp Hansen before Sunday afternoon’s show and changed the sign, according to the military newspaper Stars & Stripes. The slur has since been removed.

A photo of the marquee was posted on Facebook with some of the letters on the offending word blocked out.

(Photo: Facebook)
(Photo: Facebook)

Marine officials posted a statement about the incident on Facebook on Monday:

“Marine Corps Installations Pacific is aware of an incident on Camp Hansen yesterday involving the posting of a racial slur on an AAFES marquee.

“Please know that the language used is in direct contradiction to the core values of honor, courage, and commitment that we stand for as Marines.

“This type of behavior is not tolerated by the Marine Corps. The text has been removed and the incident is under investigation.”

The culprits were still at large on Thursday. Authorities offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of those responsible. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Naval Criminal Investigation Service Tip Line.

Since its release nearly three weeks ago, “Black Panther” has become the 10th-highest domestic grossing movie in history, dispelling conventional wisdom that films with black leads don’t have box-office pull.

The blockbuster also has attracted racist trolls, including some who have falsely reported incidents of white viewers being physically attacked by black fans at “Black Panther” showings.

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Ryan Coogler

"Black Panther" is the third film Coogler has directed, following "Fruitvale Station" and "Creed." The 31-year-old Oakland native told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/movies/article/Black-Panther-director-Ryan-Coogler-had-to-12559794.php" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>&nbsp;that he used his own struggles with his cultural identity and desperate need for positive representation of Africa on screen as fuel for this project.&nbsp;<br /><br />&ldquo;You see media that can make you feel ashamed to be African. They can make it feel like it&rsquo;s a shameful thing,&rdquo;&nbsp;Coogler said. &ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s not. For me, the biggest thing on this was making this awesome, globe-trotting political thriller that just happens to be about Africans. It&rsquo;s the best way to accomplish that goal and that&rsquo;s what Marvel was interested in doing &mdash; that&rsquo;s what I was interested in doing.&rdquo;

Hannah Beachler

Beachler, the film's production director, built the nation of Wakanda. Beachler, who also worked on Beyonc&eacute;'s visual album "Lemonade," said she looked at the work of modern architects who designed on the continent as well as traditional aspects of the diaspora. <br /><br />"I drew from a lot of different places, I think, and keeping the tradition involved in the aesthetic and the design language was of the utmost importance, because it&rsquo;s about black representation, the black future and agency using architecture and history and science and myth and biomimetics, and biomorphosis, and all of that went into the design," she told <a href="https://filmschoolrejects.com/black-panther-interview-production-designer-hannah-beachler/" target="_blank">Film School Rejects</a>.

Joe Robert Cole

Joe Robert Cole is the co-writer behind "Black Panther." Along with Coogler, Cole&nbsp;drew inspiration and themes from the continent of Africa and infused them into the fictional nation of&nbsp;Wakanda.&nbsp;<br /><br />&ldquo;For so long there was a limited pool of people who had the opportunity to tell stories so that limited the perspective of the story being told. I think there is a fatigue with that perspective,&rdquo; Cole told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/13/black-panther-joe-robert-cole-black-superhero-interview" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. &ldquo;This is a movie that steps out of that in an amazing way. There&rsquo;s a hunger for new lenses on the world, new ways of seeing stories. We spoke from our perspective."

Ruth E. Carter

Carter,&nbsp;a legendary costume designer who's&nbsp;worked on dozens of&nbsp;classic films, is the mastermind behind the film's wardrobe. She found inspiration from tribes on the continent -- including the Maasai, the Dogon and the Chakana -- and put an Afrofuturistic twist on the costumes. <br /><br />"We wanted to honor [culture and tradition] in this futuristic way and a lot of the details of the indigenous African tribes easily translate into a futuristic model so that part of it was super fun to do and it was like no one had even really thought of it like that," she told HuffPost.

Nate Moore

Moore broke barriers&nbsp;in bringing&nbsp;"Black Panther" to the big screen. The executive producer, who's worked on several other&nbsp;Marvel films, told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-panther-executive-producer-nate-moore-on-why-its-important-to-have-black-superheroes/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> that this kind of representation is essential and he hopes it can create a ripple effect. <br /><br />"There's such an underserved population of people just aching for positive images of themselves on screen," he said. "In this case, obviously the African-American and African communities seeing representations like T'Challa and Nakia and Okoye and all these great characters in the context of doing good and being heroic is valuable because those images don't exist that much. And so I think and I hope this movie can be a watershed to see other films like this."

Douriean Fletcher

Fletcher created the jewelry and&nbsp;armor that adorns the&nbsp;Dora Milaje, the women of Wakanda's&nbsp;special forces team.&nbsp;The jeweler worked closely with Carter to deliver the accessories needed to equip the fictional kingdom. <br /><br />"Ruth liked what I consider to be an ancient yet futuristic aesthetic and with her understanding of my skill set, creativity, innovation and work ethic, she saw it fit for me to take on such a critical role for this project," she told the <a href="https://lasentinel.net/the-imagery-of-wakanda-is-everywhere-black-panther-costume-designer-ruth-e-carter-found-douriean.html" target="_blank">Los Angeles Sentinel</a>.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.