Black Panther, the latest adventure from Marvel Studios, is just around the corner, and fans have been wondering what they could expect from the upcoming solo flick. The trailers and TV spots, while exciting, didn’t offer much in the way of information about the movie itself.
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Fortunately, if you’re hoping to know more about Black Panther, we’ve got you covered!
Last year, we had the chance to visit the Black Panther set in Atlanta, and we learned all kinds of exciting info about King T’Challa, the Dora Milaje, epic villains, potential cameos, and so much more.
Below, we’ve compiled some of the biggest things we learned about Black Panther while hanging out on the set, and put them into one easy place for you to enjoy!
Major Aspect of Black Panther History Changed for the Movie
Executive Producer Nate Moore on the Dora Milaje: “They’re a big part of the movie. They’re a big part of the movie. As you guys know, Danai Gurira plays Okoye who, in our world, is the head of the Dora, and a pivotal character in the movie. Exploring how they work, their role in Wakanda and their relationship with the king is a big part of the storytelling.”
Possible Cameos in Black Panther
“There’s so many characters in the Black Panther world that we wanted to explore, we didn’t want to rely on cameos from other movies,” Moore said. “I wouldn’t expect that, nor do we want to have to make those direct line comparisons, but I think it’ll be obvious.”
Shuri’s Key Role Revealed
“[Shuri]’s a big part of the film,” said Moore. “She’s his sister, so she’s going to be next to him in a lot of these adventures, a lot of these scenes. Again, our Shuri is the head of the design group, so it’s a bit of a different track than what you’ve seen in comics before.”
Chadwick Boseman on Why He Chose to Join Marvel
“Because if it was somehow not as good as it is, I wouldn’t want to do it. Just because it’s Marvel it doesn’t mean you want to do it,” Boseman explained. “They tend to be offering people stuff that’s interesting and good and wanting to push envelopes in certain places.”
Klaw’s Connection to Wakanda Revealed
“He’s [Klaue] got a very specific relationship to Wakanda,” Andy Serkis said. “He’s got a bit of a love/hate relationship with it, really. He certainly has discovered things about it that nobody else has, and we discover that in this movie. He’s one of the few people who’s been into Wakanda and he reveals quite a lot about it.”
Martin Freeman on How Everett Ross Is Different From the Comics
Freeman: “I think we’ve all seen the idea of the goofy white guy among cool black people going, ‘What the hell?’ I’ve seen that about four billions times today, so, I don’t really need to do that again. I had early conversations with Ryan about that. Both of us were very keen that that wouldn’t be the case in this, you know? He has moments of comedy, he has moments of levity and there was humor there, but that’s not his purpose.”
Black Panther Character Smarter Than Tony Stark
“As far as the technologically advanced side, in our mind and in our incarnation, Shuri is the head of the Wakandan design group.” EP Nate Moore explained. “So she is, in our mind, the smartest person in the world. Smarter than Tony Stark, but she is a 16 year old girl, which we thought was really interesting. Again, black faces in positions of power, or positions of technological know how, that’s a rarity. So it’s something that a big part of the film.”
When Black Panther Takes Place Revealed
“It begins where Civil War left off,” Moore said during a press visit to the Black Panther set. “Obviously that movie had a big impact on T’Challa because T’Chaka was killed. Now we answer the question, ‘What happens when he goes home? Who rules Wakanda? How does Wakanda deal with the loss of a king who was a fair king, who people seemed to like, and is T’Challa ready to be the king of Wakanda?’”
Which Comics Influenced Black Panther Revealed
“I think there were definitely some inspiration points, especially design wise that we got from both Chris and Ta-Nehisi’s run,” Moore said. “Brian Stelfreeze is an amazing artist, and some of his version of Wakanda, and even Wakandan technology is stuff we borrowed pretty liberally from.”
Marvel Producer Calls Ancient One Casting “A Lesson”
“Sometimes we step in it, a little bit,” Moore said. “I think the Ancient One in Doctor Strange was a lesson for us, and in trying to avoid a stereotype we created an issue that we completely understood in hindsight, but we want to tell stories for everybody.”
Why Klaw Has an Accent in Black Panther
“We decided that Klaue, we would make him South African, a very strong Afrikaans, quite bullish,” Serkis said. “Edging towards not being a politically correct person, he’d fit in the White House quite perfectly. I didn’t say that! … or, in fact, in Britain at the moment.”
Vibranium Is Not the Strongest Metal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
“The big thing about Wakanda is its Vibranium, which is one of the strongest metals, not the strongest but one of the strongest and most expensive metals,” Beachler said during a set visit last year. “T’Challa is the wealthiest man — more so than even Batman — and a lot of it is because of their Vibranium and their knowledge in being able to handle Vibranium and turning it into this.”
Black Panther Production Designer Explains Changes Made to Gorilla City
“Everything is my favorite but one of my very favorites is Jabari Land, known in the comics as Gorilla City, which is over here,” Beachler said. “We decided, again Ryan and I … We’ve had so much fun in discovery here. He was like, ‘What about snow?’ We were talking on the phone for a couple months before we really got on the ground. Snow in Africa, what are you talking about? I started looking up pictures and seeing lions with snow. Who would have thought? Months later here we are standing 7,000 feet up in snow in South Africa, so that was great.”
Andy Serkis Reveals How Long He Knew About Black Panther
“Klaw appears in Age of Ultron, and the way that all happened was, they were working with The Imaginarium, which is my performance-capture studio,” Serkis said. “We were all working and consulting back on Ultron, working with James Spader and Mark Ruffalo and initiating them into the process of motion-capture, because they were both using performance-capture. We were providing services for that.”
Black Panther: Chadwick Boseman Reveals What It Was Like Working With Ryan Coogler
“So we have very similar views about what things should be like. And the things that we usually have a difference of opinion about, it’s so minor what those differences are,” Boseman explained. “I think it’s more of a growth because there’s nobody battling you. We’re constantly building on each other, so it’s been a good marriage so far.”
Black Panther: Lupita Nyong’o Reveals Major Details About Her Character
“I can say that Nakia, when we meet her, is a war dog which means she’s one of Wakanda’s CIA agents,” Nyong’o explained. “Her job is to spy around the world and report back to Wakanda to keep Wakanda safe and keep Wakanda informed.”
Black Panther: What Killmonger Wants Revealed
“The interesting comparison we’ve been making, and this is going to sound crazy, but we’ve always thought of the Black Panther as a James Bond kind of movie, right?” Moore explained during a press visit to the Black Panther set. “This big, globetrotting epic, but in talking with Ryan Coogler, the director, one of the things that he also liked was this sort of Godfather kind of storytelling. When I say ‘Godfather’ it’s the idea that, it’s very much a story about family and a story about an organization where new leadership is taking place. Much like the Godfather, you have the five families, right? They’re all vying for power, and in this case, it’s power over Wakanda. I think Killmonger sees Wakanda as something that could be used differently than it currently is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that puts him directly at odds with T’Challa.”
Black Panther Producer on Why Now Is the Perfect Time to Visit Wakanda
“We talked about it, and the truth was there was so much to bite off we didn’t want to waste,” Moore said. “We could have gone there a couple times before and there were iterations of other scripts where you did dip your toe in Wakanda, but we didn’t want to tease it without having a full idea of what it was going to be. We didn’t want to start locking into ideas without honestly having a story or a film maker who had a full understanding of what the country was. Ultimately those ideas fell to the wayside until we could spend a full movie on it.”
Marvel Producer Reveals Why Ryan Coogler Got Picked for Black Panther
ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Moore during a set visit for Black Panther, and it was there the producer said he had a gut feeling about Coogler. “We kind of watched Creed and said, ‘that guy,’” Moore said. “Then we hunted him down and we made him say yes, but it wasn’t hard.”
How Black Panther Handles Being King and a Hero
“At the beginning of the film, I think he’s neither,” Boseman said. “He’s been Black Panther before, but I would say at the beginning of this movie, it’s shortly after Civil War has ended, so he’s still mourning.”
Andy Serkis Reveals What Klaue Has Been Doing Since ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
“Well, he’s just basically been causing mayhem in the world, on minor and major levels,” Serkis said on the set of Black Panther. “He’s a smart guy in the sense that he’s a businessman as well as an arms dealer. He manages to cover his tracks. He has a mercenary army that works with him in different locations all around the world and he’s able to go down rabbit holes and appear in other places. He’s got the smarts, but he’s also a little whacked out.”
Check back for more stories from the set visit later today and throughout the week.
Black Panther is set to hit theaters on February 16th!
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