The post-credit scenes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have become one of the franchise’s most-loved features, resulting in audiences happily sitting through minutes of credits to get a glimpse at what’s next on the menu. Black Panther was no exception, with the film revealing that Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier was recuperating from his brainwashing in a remote Wakandan village.
Given that the post-credits scene of Captain America: Civil War showed the fan favorite being treated in Wakanda, this wasn’t an especially surprising revelation. What was, however, was that he was being called “White Wolf.”
The name has a history in the Black Panther comics: it’s the codename of a character whose parents died in a plane crash over Wakanda, leaving him as the sole survivor. Despite being a Caucasian foreigner, the child was adopted by T’Challa and went on to lead the nation’s secret police (known as the Hatut Zeraze).
All this was news to Sebastian Stan though, who explained as much in an interview during the Avengers: Infinity War press tour:
“Now, talking about comic books and merging them with the MCU, I want to go back and revisit the Black Panther comics because of the White Wolf situation and that’s a whole different line, so I didn’t even see that really going that way and understanding what that could be. But it’s really clever the way they do it, if you think about it. I look at that and go, ‘Of course. That makes sense, that feels well.’ I don’t know how they think about it.”
It’ll be interesting to see whether the films live up to their promise of making Bucky as involved in the Wakandan state as White Wolf was in the comics. To do this, he’d probably have to play a major role in Black Panther 2, which will presumably show us the bits of Wakanda that didn’t make it into the first movie. Of course, this would go against the persuasive fan theory that Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers is destined to bite the bullet in Infinity War, with Bucky taking up the Captain American mantle and leading a new team of Avengers.
Whatever happens, exciting times lie ahead for the MCU and we’ll have a much better idea of how the future is likely to shake out very soon, when Infinity War explodes into cinemas on April 27th.
