‘Black Panther’: The Biggest Differences Between How Everett Ross Deals With Klaw and Zemo

Martin Freeman debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Captain America: Civil War as Everett Ross, a member of the CIA who hoped to keep tabs on the Avengers and bring Zemo to justice. The actor returns to the MCU with Black Panther, where his character faces off with Ulysses “Klaw” Klaue, who will force him to change his strategies to take the villain down.

ComicBook.com spoke with Freeman during a Black Panther set visit last year.

“He wants him definitely on his radar to do future business, because he’d rather know where crazy guys like that are in the world than just let him go or have nothing to do with him,” Freeman shared. “That was the interesting thing about playing those things with Andy Serkis. Because, normally, [Ross] has a lot of status in any room he comes in. He assumes that status, I think. And he has no idea how to deal with Klaw, because Klaw is a lunatic, he’s insane.”

The unpredictable nature of a villain like Klaw forces his character to improvise his approach, as opposed to being the one in charge of a situation.

“I just have to contain this. I have to get what information I can,” Freeman added. “I want him coming back to me as opposed to what T’Challa wants to do with him. He sees him as a direct threat to his country. Whereas for me, it’s interesting, because Klaw keeps me in touch with other bad guys in the world.”

Ross proves to be a different type of hero, as he can’t use his fists to solve problems. Instead, he has to focus on long-term methods to eradicate evil. The intensity of Serkis as Klaw created quite a few challenges for Ross’ approach to an adversary.

“There was no way that, I as Martin, or me as Ross, could top that,” Freeman said of the intensity of scenes. “Then you would just have two insane f-cking people going crazy and the scene wouldn’t contain it, but Andy is extremely good at that wrong footing, keeping you guessing stuff. I think Ross doesn’t like … he’s a pretty powerful guy, he doesn’t like being wrong-footed in his own kitchen and that’s kind of what happened with Klaw.”

Black Panther hits theaters on February 16th.