‘Black Panther’: Marvel Officially Unveils The First Footage

Last night during Marvel’s open house event, the studio unveiled the first footage from the upcoming Black Panther solo film directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed).

The director shared his excitement in a sizzle reel for the film telling the press:

“I’m super excited about an African king who is also strong enough, fast enough, smart enough to do some of the things that T’Challa is going to do in this film. The story is just going to be very honest and gritty. I think it’s a lot of the right ingredients that we have to make something really special.”

The press was offered glimpses of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa in the film but according to Entertainment Weekly, it was the supporting that stole the sizzle reel from the King of Wakanda.

The footage included Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o), a member of T’Challa’s bodyguards known as the Dora Milaje as she single-handedly took out a group of armed assailants somewhere in the jungle of what was presumably Wakanda.

While he popped up in an interview for the sizzle reel, Michael B. Jordan who plays the villainous Erik Killmonger was noticeably absent from the footage. The sizzle reel primarily featured the journey the key characters take to Warrior Falls for T’Challa’s coronation as king of Wakanda.

An action sequence was also glimpsed which featured Boseman as well as Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross trading one-liners with Andy Serkis’ Ulysses Klau: “Well, you brought quite the entourage, do you have a mixtape coming out?” “Oh yeah, I’ll actually send you link.”

Marvel’s Black Panther features a star-studded cast including Chadwick Boseman in the title role as T’Challah aka Black Panther, Angela Bassett as Ramonda, Forest Whitaker as Zuri, Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger, Sterling K. Brown as N’Jobu, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Florence Kasumba as Ayo, Danai Gurira as Okoye, Daniel Kaluuya as W’Kabe, Winston Duke as M’Kabe aka Man-Ape, and Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue aka Klaw.

Black Panther follows T’Challa who, after the events of Captain America: Civil War, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T’Challa’s mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.

Black Panther hits theaters February 18, 2018.

Source: EW