Black Panther graces EW’s annual Comic-Con preview issue,
featuring an exclusive set visit beyond the border of Wakanda — the
fantastical African nation where Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa rules over a
secretive and futuristic society.
It’s a place Marvel fans have been waiting years to visit – and the
film provides a starring role to the historic first black comic-book
superhero, whose power to inspire transcends even his feats of physical
strength.
In Marvel lore,
T’Challa’s homeland is the site of massive natural
deposits of Vibranium, the near-mystical metal that comprises Captain
America’s shield, is woven into his Black Panther, and has allowed the
people of Wakanda to make technological leaps nearly a century ahead of
the rest of the world.
But as T’Challa learns upon ascending the throne, the minute others
know you have something valuable, someone will try to take it from you.
In self-defense, Wakanda has closed itself off from the other nations
of Earth, maintaining a false front that it’s a mere third-world
nowhere – full of mines, farms, and jungle creatures. The truth is, its
mines produce the rarest, most precious metal on earth, its fields grows
the Heart-Shaped Herb, a Vibranium-enriched plant that grants its
leaders superhuman strength, and its jungle creatures provide
inspiration for one of the sleekest superheroes to ever leap from the
page to the screen.
In our preview of the Feb. 16 film, EW explores the threat to
T’Challa’s kingdom from both within and without. Standing by his side is
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, a covert agent whose job is to
stifle word of Wakanda’s secrets, hunting down its enemies with deadly
force.
One such foe is Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger, a dissident from
the country and aspiring prince who has colluded with a hostile foreign
adversary in a bid to bring down the rightful heir to Wakanda’s throne.
The enemy Killmonger has aligned with is Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klaue,
the Vibranium poacher last seen having his arm sliced off in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
He has replaced the appendage with a piece of sonic mining equipment
stolen from Wakanda, but the real danger is what he could tell the
outside world about the nation’s secrets.
With Klaue and Killmonger joining forces, T’Challa already faces an
ominous external threat, but there is also unrest among the tribal
leaders of Wakanda, who fear the young king is repeating his father’s
mistakes by engaging too much with the outside world.
“In this movie, a lot like politics, it’s a little tricky to define
who’s [a good guy],” says director and co-writer Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed). “The film very much plays with those concepts, looking at conflicts and different motivations, and who’s with who.”
Wakanda has never been conquered. But that doesn’t mean ruin can’t come from within.
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