Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was joined on the San Diego Comic-Con stage by Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, and Letitia Wright, who discussed their characters and their work on the film.
The SDCC trailer isn’t being released yet, but we’ve rounded up some panel highlights below!
Black Panther will begin just after the events of Civil War. T’Challa is mourning his father, but his grief is interrupted both by his need to ascend to the throne of Wakanda, and by an exterior threat.
Ryan Coogler spoke about his own love of the comic, saying that he turned up at SDCC in 2016, sitting in the very back of Hall H as a fan. He added that, although he grew up not caring about his favorite superhero’s races, as he got older he wanted to see himself in the comics he read. His comic shop owner introduced him to Black Panther. The director also emphasized that T’Challa gets his power from his sense of history, and his people.
Letitia Wright plays Shuri, T’Challa’s sister, who’s in charge of technological innovations in Wakanda. Danai Gurira had to learn a whole new set of combat skills, as her character, Okoye, fights very differently from Michonne on The Walking Dead, and her goal is to protect Wakanda’s technological advancements from outsiders.
Nyong’o will be playing a spy, Nakia, who travels the world to keep Wakanda up-to-date, while Andy Serkis returns as Klaw, and will be getting his arm back in the film. Jordan plays Erik Killmonger who has “his own opinions on Wakanda and how it should be ruled” while Whitaker plays an old friend of T’Chaka’s who has known T’Challa since he was a baby.
We’ll bring you more footage as soon as we have it, but in the meantime we can say that we can’t wait to see more of Coogler’s take on Wakanda and its people. In the meantime, check out Lupita Nyong’o’s Twitter feed of some pre-panel elevator adventures with the Black Panther cast, and feast your eyes on this glorious poster:
