Say what you will about Marvel villains, but Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger cut through the mediocrity with his raw and nuanced take on Black Panther‘s chief antagonist.
A disillusioned native of Wakanda who grew up on the other side of the Atlantic, Killmonger’s troubled past formed the backbone of the story, as it was King T’Chaka who ordered the death of his father, N’Jobu, for betraying Wakanda. But more on that later.
Per Collider, today brings forth a new commentary clip featuring writer-director Ryan Coogler, who took a moment to outline the character of Erik Killmonger, along with a flashback scene that referenced the tragic backstory behind his mother. The video in question isn’t available to embed at the moment, so we’ll kindly point you in the direction of Collider.
Meanwhile, here’s what Coogler had to share about Killmonger’s heritage:
The backstory idea of it was this was through the idea of the woman he fell in love with, the African-American woman. The idea was that when you see those guys talking over that paperwork in the beginning of the film, they’re trying to figure out a way to break her out. She’s been incarcerated. They’re trying to break her out of jail. The idea is that they never got her out and she passed away in prison, so Killmonger didn’t come up with a mom either.
And now we simply can’t wait to get our hands on the Black Panther Blu-ray to see what other story trinkets are hidden within Coogler’s audio commentary. One thing’s for sure: the director will likely devote a fair chunk of time to Killmonger’s powerhouse performance.
Now available on Digital HD (see the exclusive extras here), Black Panther bounds onto Blu-ray, DVD and all the usual platforms on May 15th. It also comes packing a raft of deleted scenes, including one in which King T’Chaka mourns the loss of his deceitful brother, N’Jobu.
