‘Black Panther’ Director Explains Bucky’s Absence From the Film

Considering the post-credits scene to Captain America: Civil War, some fans may have been expecting Bucky “The Winter Soldier” Barnes to a have a supporting role in Marvel’s Black Panther. Now Black Panther director Ryan Coogler has explained why that isn’t the case.

SPOILERS for Black Panther follow.

In truth, Bucky does make a brief appearance in Black Panther, but only in the post-credits scene. Fans may have been expecting a bigger role for Bucky, but Coogler explains on The Empire Film Podcast that it wasn’t really necessary to spend a lot of time on Bucky’s deprogramming.

“That was something that was always—it was a Shuri thing, because in our world we kind of figured that Bucky Barnes would be her assignment,” Coogler says. “We kind of drop the hint at that when they bring Ross in and she’s like, ‘Oh another one.’ So we dropped hints in there, but what we kind of decided was that her cracking his mental code, if Shuri’s as smart as she is, that wouldn’t really be a big problem.”

In addition, while the programming was simple enough for Shuri to manage off-screen, the fallout for Bucky Barnes would have been significant. To include Bucky in the struggle for Wakanda would also have presented its own complications.

“Bucky would have horrible PTSD,” Coogler points out. “He would need spiritual guidance. The last thing he would need to do is jump into that civil war, and so that was kind of the thought process there. And it could be potentially problematic if it’s a bunch of Africans fighting and you bring in a White dude, he comes in shootin’ people (laughs). We were aware of that. Bucky’s not trained to neutralize people peacefully, he’s an assassin. We were like, ‘I don’t know if we can do that.’”

Bucky will become involved in the struggle to protect Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War when he stands side-by-side with Black Panther and the Avengers against Thanos and the Black Order.

Black Panther is now in theaters. It will be followed by Avengers: Infinity War on May 4th, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6th, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.