'Black Panther' Producer On 'Avengers: Infinity War' Shocker, Wakanda's Future

Avengers: Infinity War took a devastating amount of heroes away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with some more shocking than others. Black Panther executive producer Nate Moore says this was always a known plan, behind-the-scenes.

Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow. Major spoilers!

In an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com, one of the minds behind Black Panther revealed that the cast and crew knew T'Challa would be wiped from existence in Avengers: Infinity War early during the work on their standalone Wakanda movie.

"We knew pretty early on," Moore said. "So I was fortunate enough to be in those early writers rooms with Chris [Markus] and Steve [McFeely] and Joe [Russo] and Anthony [Russo] when they were breaking Infinity War and Avengers 4, so I knew what was coming and knew that they had a really good reason for choosing the characters they did. I think it was probably a bigger shock honestly for Ryan Coogler, but here's the good news, I think we were able to deliver a film that stands on its own and that carves out a very special place in the Marvel universe."

As it turned out, Black Panther was more of a set up for Avengers: Infinity War than anyone had planned or imagined it to be. While it stands entirely on its own, the wild popularilty of the film's characters and locale prompted millions to invest in a trip back to this corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as soon as possible.

"Honestly, more than we anticipated, really helps set the table for Infinity War," Moore said. "And the truth is, Black Panther is a mantle almost as much as it's a character, so there's a lot of different ways we can take the storytelling going forward because the world of Wakanda is so vast and so interesting that we have some great ideas."

While Moore can't detail how exactly Marvel Studios will revisit Wakanda in the future given the cliffhanger nature of Avengers: Infinity War, he does admit there are plans to explore this particular pocket in greater depth.

"We know there's a ton more story to tell in Wakanda because even in the two hours we had there were ideas we left on the table just because of time," Moore said. "And the good news is, because ultimately we have a good insight on what all the films are doing, we knew what Infinity War and what Avengers 4 next year will do and are able to sort of plan accordingly. So I think there are great stories that will feel like the necessary next storytelling beat from what you've seen in Black Panther, but also carry the ball forward from what happened, the very real thing that happened at the end of Avengers 3 and what will again happen next May. So it's all been planned out to as much as we plan anything out frankly, with room for great ideas to come and surprise us, but we're excited. There's still a ton of story left to tell."

Those plans won't be coming any time soon, though. "I think it's gonna be pretty close to the vest," Moore said. "I can't imagine us doing anything before Avengers 4 is out in the world. We really want to complete that storytelling before we start talking about what's next. And again, knowing what Joe and Anthony have in store I think is really exciting. So hopefully audiences can come to that and watch that film on its own terms and then hopefully shortly after that we can talk about where we think we can go."

Black Panther is available on blu-ray and DigitalHD now. Avengers: Infinity War is now playing in theaters. Leave your questions and thoughts about Marvel's recent films in the comment section or send them to @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter!