Alternate ‘Black Panther’ Suit Design Revealed

If things keep going well for Black Panther, the beloved hero is on track to become the comic fandom’s next big thing. This month, the Marvel star stepped into his first solo film that has since smashed dozens of box-office records. Fans around the world have serious superhero envy over T’Challa and his slick suit, but the hero nearly donned a different get-up.

However, as you can see below, the alternate design still looks pretty sweet.

Over on Twitter, a concept artist with Marvel Studios shared their original take on Black Panther’s suit. Ryan Meinerding posted his unused design which contains a subtle callback to Erik Killmonger.

“This is an unused Panther design I did. The bundles of rough thread are to represent Killmonger’s scarification,” the artist tweeted. “@N_I_Z_Z_I incorporated that in the final Killmonger design. Final #BlackPanther design is by the amazing @Adi_Granov.”

This prototype design looks very different from the final suit Black Panther slipped into for his film. Both suits are black and feature toothed necklaces, but they differ in the details. The unused look has ears which droop down and its mask does not look as predatory. The cover has wider silver eyes and, and the face mask has an identifiable snout which black panthers have.

As for the suit’s body, it does have dots peppered around its chest like Killmonger had. It features black piping as well, and the contours outline each of the Black Panther‘s rippling muscles.

Ultimately, Meinerding’s first design was passed on, but parts of it lived on. Its thread bundles were shifted to Killmonger, and costume designer Ruth Carter went on to make a stunning suit for T’Challa. The Oscar-nominated designer admitted her suit was a difficult one to construct, but she drew inspiration from other iconic suits like Superman’s to get the job done.

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.