'Black Panther' Reveals More MCU '90s History

This weekend's release of Black Panther has changed the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe [...]

This weekend's release of Black Panther has changed the landscape of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in plenty of ways - including expanding on its pre-Iron Man history.

Spoilers for Black Panther below!

While most of Black Panther is set relatively close to the present day, with the film beginning soon after the conclusion of Captain America: Civil War, it periodically flashes back to Oakland, California in 1992. In the process, Black Panther introduces several new, integral concepts, from the origin of the film's villain, to general worldbuilding of the world of Wakanda.

The film's opening scene takes place in the 90s, focusing on the reunion of Wakanda's two royal brothers, N'Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) and T'Chaka (Atandwa Kani, played later in the film by John Kani). N'Jobu and Zuri (Denzel Whitaker, played later in the film by Forest Whitaker) are discovered by T'Chaka, who suspects his brother of conspiring with Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) to bring Vibranium to the outside world. N'Jobu threatened to shoot Zuri, but T'Chaka intervened, killing his brother in the process.

Outside, a group of children were playing basketball, as one child looked up into the sky to see the Wakandan ship fly into the night. As is revealed in the film, that child was none other than a young version of Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), and his life was changed forever by the death of his father.

While the timeline between then and the events of Black Panther is somewhat fuzzy, it's clear that 1992 is when Kilmonger's "origin" begins. He soon joins the Navy SEALs, and graduates to the "Ghost Unit", becoming a black ops mercenary. There's currently no distinct timeline for those events, but they very well could have happened in the late '90s as well.

In the process, these Oakland scenes also introduce a key part of Wakanda's history, in the fact that N'Jobu was an undercover member of the War Dogs. For the uninitiated, the group is a series of Wakandan spies, who ventured throughout the world to keep tabs on the socio-political events of other countries.

There's no telling exactly how long the War Dogs had been undercover prior to these 1992 scenes, but their secret operation is certainly something of note. In a way, the War Dogs could have ties to - or at least be aware of - the other major events that were happening in the MCU at that point in time. This would range from December 16th, 1991, the day that Howard and Maria Stark were killed by a brainwashed Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, to the Red Room training of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow.

And in a way, the presence of the War Dogs could springboard into future Marvel films as well, particularly in the '90s-set Captain Marvel. Could we see some of the War Dogs be aware of Captain Marvel's Kree-Skrull War? Could that play a role in why Wakanda goes out of its way to stay hidden? Fans will just have to wait to find out.

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.

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