Black Panther Scribe Outlines How Wakanda Will Impact The MCU Moving Forward

Building on its appearance across both Age of Ultron and Civil War, Wakanda’s status as a key cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will only continue to grow and grow.

That’s according to Black Panther screenwriter Joe Robert Cole (The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story), who offered up some new details pertaining to Ryan Coogler’s much-anticipated standalone movie while chatting with /Film.

First and foremost, Cole showered praise on Chadwick Boseman’s breakout performance as T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War earlier in the year, and is excited to foster this debut as a springboard to develop the character further in two years’ time.

“First, I think Chadwick did a phenomenal job in Civil War in setting the tone for him being a king, for the nobility,” Cole said. “At the end, I thought his turn was fantastic and how he rose above his own vengeance. I think that was a great introduction to him. Our standalone movie will begin shortly after Civil War ends. So we’ll be able to see him mourning and him starting to take command as king of his own nation. Lots of things are going to occur within regards to that. The country will be under threat from inside and out so we’ll learn what Wakanda is, that nation, as the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. Also, as Wakanda’s rise to prominence happens, it will affect the MCU moving forward which is really exciting.”

Though Wakanda may be a fictional country within Africa – it also happens to be one of the most advanced nations on Earth – Cole is still keen to inject a sense of true African culture into Black Panther.

“Africa is such a huge nation. There are so many countries, each of them with different histories, mythologies, and cultures but what we tried to do was hone in on some of the history, some of the cultural influences and then extrapolate out in our technology, extrapolate out in how we see Wakanda and the different parts of the country and the culture of the country as well. So we wanted to root it in reality first and then build out from there, so we’d feel pretty authentic and grounded.”

Black Panther is due to land on July 6, 2018. Boseman stars opposite Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) and Danai Gurira, with Michael B. Jordan as the evil Erik Killmonger.