It can't be stressed just what a transformation this space has undergone. When the offices moved from Manhattan Beach to Burbank, they were a cluster of nondescript workspaces with little flare and barely any cohesion. If you got off at the Marvel floor in the Frank G. Wells building (named after the beloved Eisner-era executive who died tragically in a helicopter crash), chances are you wouldn't even know it's the Marvel floor. Not anymore.

Later in the tour we walked into the screening room on the first floor of the building and watched dailies from the film. There was a scene where Lupita Nyong'o seriously beat up some soldiers, another featured traditional warriors on a large boat, and most tellingly was a sequence where Chadwick Boseman walks into a water-filled arena overseen by Forest Whitaker shamanistic Zuri. (It has been debated whether or not the more magical elements of the Black Panther character would be present in the film; judging by this the answer is probably.) The footage, while raw, seemed to have that lived-in, slightly off-center, still-elegant long take feel that brilliant filmmaker Ryan Coogler brought to the unexpectedly great "Rocky" spin-off "Creed."

Another, longer sequence featured Klaue (Andy Serkis), last seen getting his arm severed in "Avengers: Age of Ultron," walking into a casino or nightclub. Klaue is soon greeted by Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), a member of the Joint Counter Terrorism Center (also last seen in "Captain America: Civil War"), and the two have some surprisingly comedic back-and-forth. Everett makes a great joke about Klaue dropping a mixtape. It turns out Klaue really is dropping a mixtape and asks Ross for his email address. It's very funny. Of course, soon after Klaue shows up a giant action sequence breaks out and T'Challa (aka the Black Panther) leaps into action. I've heard the movie described as Marvel's 007 movie and this sequence certainly reinforced that. It also reinforced the fact that "Black Panther," despite its more serious subject matter and cultural sensitivity, will still have all the fun, excitement, and humor of the very best Marvel movies. February 2018 can't come soon enough.

After watching the "Black Panther" sizzle we walked up to the art department.

Other shots that we saw included a shot with Shocker (Bokeem Woodbine), a moment where Vulture (Michael Keaton) sits crouched on a building looking like a looming gargoyle (mirroring a piece of artwork we saw earlier), and, maybe most tantalizingly, Donald Glover playing a heretofore-undisclosed character being handed a glove made from a piece of a discarded Ultron robot by one of Vulture's gang. It still doesn't answer who he's playing, exactly, but at least we can definitively say he's not Miles Morales. So there's that.

After our tour we walked across the lot to the main theater and watched a little film called "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2." I can't say much more (embargoed!) but just know that the smile that was plastered across my face during the open house didn't leave for the rest of the night.