For a while now, we’ve heard that there will be a pretty substantial connection between Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther. It makes sense, too, given that the two films are releasing in close proximity. But in the last week or so, we’ve begun to realize just how heavily tied together they’ll be.
A couple of days ago, we learned that Shuri (Letitia Wright) will be showing up in Joe and Anthony Russo’s superhero extravaganza and now, we’re receiving word that another character from T’Challa’s standalone movie will join her. IMDb brings news that Man-Ape, played by Winston Duke, will have a role in Avengers: Infinity War. As one of the antagonists of Black Panther, it’s unclear at the moment how he’ll factor into things, or how substantial a part he’ll end up having, but he will be there.
While nice to hear, this is definitely a bit surprising, as fans didn’t expect him to be such a major character and certainly didn’t think he’d be showing up in any further movies. Perhaps the studio’s taken some liberties with Man-Ape then and re-worked the villain a bit? It’s possible, but whatever the case may be, it’s becoming pretty clear that Black Panther is going to be a very important film for the MCU, despite the titular hero still being pretty new to the franchise.
After all, leading MCU architect Kevin Feige has previously stated that “T’Challa’s story is very important to us as it links to the next Avengers films, which is why we brought it forward.” So we know that, in the chronology of MCU events, whatever happens in Black Panther will resonate within the plot of Avengers: Infinity War. Of course, speculation has already begun to take shape as well, with rumors pointing to a possible attack on Wakanda by Thanos – which could make sense if all these characters are going to appear.
Either way, the cast of Avengers: Infinity War is already vast, with the Guardians Of The Galaxy all playing their part, in addition to the core Avengers team – so we can assume that anyone appearing in the sequel from other movies are included for an important reason. With this many heroes and villains involved, there’ll be no time for indulgent snippets of people from other titles – everyone on screen in the film will have a purpose.
It’ll probably be some time before Marvel’s plans for Avengers: Infinity War become clear, given that there are still a whole handful of movies set to be released before it arrives, but it appears that there’s going to be a lot more involvement from Wakanda than initially thought, and we can’t wait to see how the fictional nation factors into things once the blockbuster bursts into theatres on May 4th, 2018.
