“My son, it is your time."
Writing that quote gave me chills. Sometimes it's hard to believe the hype, but this film truly did justice to its high critical acclaim. For all who have been immersed in the world of Wakanda, enjoy these facts about the film’s production, actors, Easter eggs, and more!
Black Panther Film Facts
24. The Wakandan Tongue
Actor and star of Black Panther Chadwick Boseman does not sound the same in the film as he does in real life. This is because Boseman used an African accent in the film, but this is no trivial fact. Boseman explains that the reason why he used the accent is because colonialism in Africa would often make rulers have a European accent, but Wakanda was never colonized. Thus, there is no way that Black Panther would be without his African accent.
23. Hit the Ground Running
Those who have seen Captain America: Civil War might notice that the narrative of that film carries over to Black Panther. The Black Panther film picks up right where Captain America’s film leaves off, making these films a great duo to watch back-to-back!
22. Takin’ Care of Business
Chackwick Boseman has a background in martial arts, which served him well in the movie, as he was able to perform many of the stunts in the major fighting scenes. In fact, most of the actors attended a boot camp, allowing them to perform their own stunts as well.
21. The Car Chase Scene
One of the best scenes in the film is the high-speed chase involving Black Panther and some bad guys in a busy city. This scene was filmed in Busan, South Korea. The cool thing about this scene? It was filmed with an editor on set doing real-time editing of the footage as it progressed. This does not occur often in production, but director Ryan Coogler wanted the sequence to capture every detail. Let's just say it worked out well for him.
20. Female Warriors
Marvel has its fair share of spectacular female heroes. In the film, the kingdom of Wakanda has a group of female warriors specifically tasked with protecting the throne. This group goes by the name “Dora Milaje.” The Dora Milaje cast was made up of all kinds of actresses, stuntmen, and, yes, Broadway dancers.
19. Warrior Falls
One of the most epic settings in the film is the Warrior Falls. The set required over hundreds of cubic feet of foam, and the wall was 100 feet high. The foam was even sculptured meticulously to match the rocks in Oribi Gorge of South Africa.
18. How Much Longer?
Actor Michael B. Jordan, who played Black Panther’s rival Killmonger, had to endure more than two hours of makeup production every day. If you’ve seen the film, you’ll remember those dots that covered Jordan’s upper body. These were all distinct molds that had to be placed individually and then painted over in precise tone and texture.
17. What Came First?
This fact isn’t about the film in particular, but it’s pretty important! Many people think that the Black Panther of the comics was named after the Black Panther Party (BPP). This is not true. The BPP was formed three months after the comic debut of Black Panther in the 52nd edition of Fantastic Four.
16. Switching Universes
Rising actor John Boyega, who plays Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, was originally considered to play the lead role in Black Panther. No offense, but I’m glad they went with Boseman.
15. Relighting the Torch…Again
The Fantastic Four character the Human Torch has been portrayed twice on screen. The first time was by Chris Evans, who then joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to play Captain American. Oddly, Michael B. Jordan (the second Human Torch) also joined up in the MCU to play Erik Killmonger in Black Panther.
14. A Big World
The movie was filmed in Busan, South Korea and Atlanta, Georgia. The film also took aerial shots from Zambia, South Africa, Argentina, and Uganda to portray the fictional land of Wakanda.
13. History in the Making
While the film might just set some box office records, history was truly in the making during its production. The production designer, Hannah Beachler, and director, Ryan Coogler, wanted the history of Wakanda to be so well represented on set that they went through the trouble of creating over 10,000 years of backstory and history for the fictional nation. That’s commitment!
12. Moved to Tears
Winston Duke, who played the role of M’Baku, was moved to tears by a line in the movie when he finally watched the film. It was the line, “Stand up, you are a king.”
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11. To the Music
As previously mentioned, the majority of the cast was part of a boot camp and undertook martial arts training, which geared them up to perform their own stunts. But even cooler than that, they practiced their scenes to the sound of African drums. This allowed the cast’s movements to have a musical aspect, something that's often present in African martial arts.
10. Klaw
Another major villain in the film is Klaw. He—like Black Panther—was introduced in the Fantastic Four comics in 1966. Klaw was played by Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Lord of the Rings and Snoke in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
9. Powerful Shuri
Alongside Black Panther himself is another crucial character: his sister, Shuri, played by Letitia Wright. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Shuri is a princess of Wakanda and plays the role of tech support for her brother T'Challa, but in the comics, Shuri is a central character who eventually becomes the Black Panther in her own right. This means she is just as powerful, if not more powerful than, T’Challa. It's too early to say if this is how she ends up in the MCU, but maybe we'll soon find out—Shuri is supposedly going to play a major role in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.
8. Experimenting With AI
The Shuri in the MCU is experimenting with Artificial Intelligence. In the Avengers: Infinity War Prelude comic book series, Shuri says, “But more exciting is that this algorithm should provide even greater advancements in Wakanda’s own artificial intelligence applications in the near future.” This is exciting stuff! Image Wakanda AI alongside the technology of S.T.A.R.K. Industries. Or maybe that's a pretty bad idea, now that I think of it...
7. Heritage Design
The Dora Milaje dress in marvelous red outfits which were inspired by African and Filipino artifacts of history.
6. The Truth of the Markings
Erik Killmonger’s markings are meant to resemble the sacrificial markings of the Mursi and Surma tribes.
5. Iconic Characterization
Michael B. Jordan compared Killmonger's relationship and rivalry with protagonist T’Challa to the iconic life-long relationship between Professor X and Magneto from X-Men.
4. Killmonger Power
Killmonger is a powerful villain. For the Black Panther to inhabit his powers, he must eat of the royal herb that provides these strengths. For anyone who is not of the royal ancestral lineage, to eat of the herb is death. But Killmonger ate it and survived (he is, after all, related to T'Challa), giving him tracking skills, night vision, and the same physical endurance as T’Challa.
3. Cutting the Captivating
Film editor Michael Shawver said that one of the hardest scenes to cut featured General Okoye (Danai Gurira) and W’Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya). On screen, these characters are lovers, toward the end of the movie things got tense when W'Kabi supports Killmonger and Okoye has misgivings. The scene showed the various layers to their relationship amidst this tension, but it had to be cut, leaving that part of their relationship relatively under-developed in the film.
2. Now for the Easter Eggs!
In the second post-credit sequence in the film, there is a scene with Bucky Barnes, AKA the Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the scene, there is a reference to the White Wolf, who was an adopted brother of T’Challa in the comics, hinting that Barnes may take up this role in the MCU.
1. What are Those?!
One of fan favorite Easter egg was when Shuri looks down at her brother's sandals and screams, "what are thooooose?!" to make fun of him. This is a direct (and pretty darn funny) reference to a viral Vine video, where a man points out a police officer's shoes.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16