The Most Epic Fantasy and Sci-Fi Website

Black Panther's Martin Freeman Discusses Changes Made to Everett Ross


Black Panther is currently the hottest film to come out of Hollywood and all of its hype has been well-deserved. The film manages to feel completely unique, despite being a Marvel movie and is easily the best thing to come out of the company thus far. Of course, like all adaptations, plenty of changes were made to make sure that the film was easily digestible for modern audiences; this is why M'Baku doesn't go by the name Man-Ape for example.

Another character who has gone through more subtle changes is Everett Ross, played by Martin Freeman in the film.

During an interview with Den of Geek, Martin revealed what kind of changes the character went through. The star of The Hobbit revealed that he wasn't a fan of the original incarnation of Ross and neither was director Ryan Coogler, so they adjusted the character to be more interesting.

"He was funny and he was very straight sort of a by the book funny guy. Sometimes easily made nervous, you know, sort of sweaty and just an anxious person sometimes. I, to be honest, wasn't massively keen to play that. I certainly wasn't massively keen to play that in the context of Black Panther. Just because I think the trope of a nervous white guy, cool black guy, we've seen it a million times before breakfast. So yeah, I wasn't mostly keen. Fortunately, Ryan (Coogler, director) and Nate Moore (producer) weren't massively keen either on that. So we talked a lot about what he might be. It's not like I shaped Ross into what he ended up being. I think, you know, that was he was going to be. But I definitely threw my 10 cents in as far as who he might be."

While not exactly James Bond, Ross does serve a Phil Coulson-like role in the film, often acting like the POV character who acts in amazement when visits Wakanda. The character does have a few heroic moments here and there, though his alignment with the CIA does put him at odds with T'Challa early on.

Also, his accent in Black Panther improved greatly from his debut in Captain America: Civil War. Good job Martin.

Black Panther is showing in cinemas now.


Read:Kevin Feige Says Black Panther Is The Best Film Marvel's Ever Made

For more articles like this, take a look at our Fandoms page.