Actor Chadwick Boseman and Producers Talk BLACK PANTHER in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR



Yesterday Entertainment Weekly revealed their CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR cover which has Cap, Iron Man and Black Panther on it. While the Internet exploded with complaints about the text on the new issue's cover — Google it because it's all over the web — the news outlet also published a feature on the introduction of Black Panther into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Actor Chadwick Boseman is playing T'Challa / Black Panther who is the leader of the secluded fictional nation of Wakanda. This is the same nation that houses the world's supply of vibranium — the metal that Cap's shield is made of and Ultron purchased from Ulysses Klaw in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. For the non-comic book readers who do not know who the Black Panther is it's a mantle given to every leader of Wakanda and a suit that is technologically advanced with vibranium and Wakanda tech.

In the EW feature on the Black Panther, Boseman talks about his character in Civil War.

"You never quite know where he stands. There’s always a bit of concealing and mystery. So I think mysterious is more [T'Challa's] boat. Not to say there’s not charm and he can’t be a ladies’ man and all that. It’s more like if there is humor, it’s more like James Bond. 
“There definitely is a sort of tradition that he’s torn between, in terms of how things were done in the past and how things need to happen now in this new world. I think there’s perhaps a bit of a maverick there, and then there’s also a need to live up to traditions and his father’s legacy. And not even his father’s legacy, but the entire nation of Wakanda. I think those are the things you will see [in Civil War].”

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige chimed in on bringing Black Panther into the MCU in Civil War.

“We kept talking about ‘somebody like Black Panther …’ After the third or fourth time that came up in a development meeting, someone said, ‘Can’t we just do the Black Panther?’ And we all looked at each other and said, ‘Yeah, I guess we could,’” Feige said. “We introduce him here, give him an arc, and make him a full character. We don’t just give him a cameo, to wave. He has his own conflict and his own people that he’s looking out for.”

Executive producer Nate Moore, then, added about how Black Panther is more neutral than on Team Cap or Team Stark.

“[Black Panther is] someone who hasn’t necessarily made up his mind about either side and whose agenda isn’t exactly what Cap’s agenda or what Tony’s agenda is. And I think that brings him into conflict weirdly with both characters at different times in the film. He is the prince of an African nation that has so far stayed very much sort of in the shadows. And eventually the film will draw him and his father out of the shadows. 
“In publishing, he is sort of this very wise and a sanguine figure who seems to know more than he lets on,” Moore continues. “I think this is Black Panther in his younger years, where he maybe is a little bit more fiery than I think how they write him in the comics because he’s very much in the nascent stages of being a hero. So that means he is probably more fallible than the Black Panther that you read in comics, but for reasons that are completely logical.”

Finally, Boseman adds his own comment regarding choosing sides.

“Ultimately some sides are taken, but I think the trick of the movie is for no one to be blindly following. Everybody is actually on their own side, in truth," Boseman continues. "He’s not in any way unaware of how important his role and his position is. I think he’s very much aware of the responsibility.”

CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR releases on May 6, 2016.