Black Panther is hitting US cinemas tomorrow and fans are beyond hyped for the latest MCU installment. Ever since Chadwick Boseman's scene-stealing performance as T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War, audiences have wanted to see the Black Panther in a solo film. Fans might then be surprised to know that the film was actually fast-tracked by Marvel when Civil War was still in development.
Speaking with Variety, MCU head Kevin Feige revealed that they needed an extra character to appear in Civil War who wouldn't side with either Steve Rogers or Tony Stark. They figured that T'Challa would be the perfect character to appear in that film, even though he did side with Tony for a little while.
"We were working on the story and we needed another character. Our executive producer suggested T'Challa. The minute we started talking about Black Panther, we brought up Chadwick. He really was the only actor we discussed. We had seen the Jackie Robinson role [in "42"] and "Get On Up" was coming up. We were very impressed by how different James Brown and Jackie Robinson are, and how he could sort of do anything. I think it was 24 hours between saying his name in a creative story meeting and talking to his agent and getting on a phone with him and offering him the role of Black Panther, which he accepted. He was in Zurich on a press tour for "Get On Up," which makes the story even more far-flung and global and James Bond-like."
They also discussed why Black Panther wasn't conceived earlier, though Feige stated that Wakanda's presence had been teased since Iron Man 2. Wakanda was also mentioned in Avengers: Age of Ultron, with Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaw, actually debuting in that film. It will be interesting to see how the country is referenced in future Marvel films after Avengers: Infinity War.
Black Panther comes out in cinemas tomorrow.
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