Warning! Spoilers for âBlack Panther,â âInfinity Warâ and whatever else below.
Just a couple of months ago (yeah, it was that recently), âBlack Pantherâ was obliterating the box office. News of a sequel hit the internet, to a chorus of âWakanda Forever.â
Then âAvengers: Infinity Warâ happened, and forever wasnât what it used to be.
In perhaps the most unexpected of many expectation-destroying moments in the new film, the king himself, TâChalla (Chadwick Boseman), crumbles to ashes as a result of Thanos (Josh Brolin) and his widely analyzed finger snap. We were all like, âWakanda movie is this?â
Nate Moore, a development and production executive at Marvel Studios, as well as a producer on âBlack Panther,â recently told HuffPost that he learned a while ago that âInfinity Warâ directors Anthony and Joe Russo planned to kill off TâChalla. In fact, he knew TâChalla would turn to dust way back when âBlack Pantherâ director Ryan Coogler was still working on his 2015 film âCreed.â
Even then, the decision was perplexing. Moore said he initially asked the Russo brothers to hold off on murdering the Black Panther.
âI knew pretty well what they were talking about and personally urged them to reconsider,â Moore said over the phone earlier this month. âBut the storytelling made sense, so I love that we got to see a little bit more of Wakanda in that film, and I hope to see how theyâre going to resolve that.â
Moore added that it was difficult to argue with the Russosâ reasoning, though he didnât elaborate on the specifics of their stance.
âTouching on all the different ideas you can have, you talk about the pros and cons of each, and they had some really compelling arguments as to why what happened happened,â Moore said. âI think ultimately it made for a really interesting, almost more complicated ending to that film because of how well âBlack Pantherâ was embraced by audiences. Again, personally painful, but I understand the reasoning.â
The Russo brothers have said the decision to kill â or not kill â particular âInfinity Warâ characters was story-driven, but that wasnât enough of an explanation for me. I recently got the chance to ask them: Why TâChalla? Did they ever consider changing their position after seeing how successful âBlack Pantherâ had become?
Well, letâs just say they were resolute.
âWe were very cued into the storyline of Panther from his origins in âCaptain America: Civil War,ââ Anthony Russo said. âThe role that Panther and Wakanda played in this movie was sort of a bedrock of the movie, a bedrock of the [Marvel cinematic universe]. I think âBlack Pantherâ couldâve done half the business that it did and it still wouldâve been a valid creative choice.â
One thing we talked a lot about was the notion of legacy and what it means to be African-American and be so disconnected to the place you are from.
Nate Moore, development and production executive at Marvel Studios
Of course, thereâs a strong likelihood the superhero isnât gone for good, given the âBlack Pantherâ sequel thatâs in the works. Will a Quantum Realm reality bring TâChalla back? Or will Shuri (Letitia Wright), TâChallaâs sister, become the next Black Panther, as some fans are already speculating?
During the rest of our interview, Moore talked about the various possibilities â and answered some of my most pressing questions: Was BeyoncĂ© secretly on the âBlack Pantherâ soundtrack? Could Kendrick Lamar be in the âBlack Pantherâ sequel? What should we make of Chadwick Bosemanâs supposed âWakanda Foreverâ fatigue?
Where did that âWakanda Foreverâ sign come from?
It was something that Chadwick and Ryan came up with in rehearsal, and there werenât a ton of variations. It sort of just seems to make intuitive sense. I have to say, initially, I think the first time they did it was in tribal council, and part of me was like, âIs that going to look cool?â [Laughs] âIs that going to be cool or are people going to reject it?â But the more that it was used, the more it sort of almost felt like it had always been.
Itâs one of those decisions you always forget when it happened, and it just felt so natural and so a part of the fabric of the movie. Chadwick â I think, because he developed it with Ryan â owns it. Everything Chadwick does just feels real, so by the end of [the film shoot], extras were doing it, crew members were doing it to each other. Everyone was doing and thatâs when you know, OK, this is something thatâs going to resonate.
The cast gets asked to do it a lot. Have you seen the memes of Chadwick doing Wakanda Forever and not looking as enthusiastic?
Yeah, Iâm not surprised, because you have to do it quite a bit. But also my friends will send me, like, soccer players doing it now. Itâs made its way into pop culture, which I think is amazing.
What part of âBlack Pantherâ changed the most from the script to what we saw?
The adventure outside of Wakanda used to be much longer. After they went to Korea, they went a couple of other places. TâChalla, Nakia and Okoye [went] and sort of explored the theme of what it means to be African and African-American in the world a bit more. We just had to pare back honestly because of the amount of time we knew the film would take even with just what you saw on screen.
There were definitely some great story ideas that we had to leave on the table and hopefully we get to revisit someday, just to keep the story as focused as possible on TâChalla and Killmonger. I think there are even sequences we boarded that were super cool that we didnât have time for, and thatâs a good sign on my end when you have too much story.
Kendrick Lamar said he wanted to be a villain in the sequel. I mean, what do you think?
[Laughs] That would be amazing. I love Kendrick Lamar, and his music is such a big part of the film. Yeah, I think if itâs right, itâs right. We can do a lot worse than Kendrick Lamar in one of our films.
There was a rumor BeyoncĂ© was secretly on one of Kendrick Lamarâs tracks. Can we finally put that to rest?
You can finally put that to rest. That is not true.
Why do you go to that wide shot at the end when Killmonger dies?
One thing we talked a lot about was the notion of legacy and what it means to be African-American and be so disconnected to the place you are from. That wide shot and that scene with TâChalla and Killmonger at the end was really about Killmonger appreciating this place that he almost felt like he was never going to go to and seeing the sunset that his father promised him years before and passing on almost peacefully, as violent as that final act was. Sort of being reunited with his ancestry in that final moment and pulling back that wide to get the peace of that, the restfulness of that, even though it is him saying goodbye.
We thought that was really interesting. Wakanda is a beautiful place and for him to be at rest there was sort of fitting, even though he is the villain. Even though his message was wrong, it is time for him to be at rest.
I was kind of pulling for Killmonger to make it through.
A lot of people were, which I think is the sign of a great villain â someone you can identify with, who has a real point of view that is not âI want to take over the worldâ or âI want all the money in the world,â but is about something thematic.
Again, that is something that Ryan Coogler pitched. That is something he should get full credit for, and I think is partially why the film resonates so much. You can see both sides. For the first time, what I thought was interesting is the notion that Killmonger actually changes TâChalla. The notion that the hero learns from the villain and changes because of the interaction with him is really powerful, and I donât think something that we have done.
With TâChalla gone, everyoneâs already speculating about Shuri taking over as Black Panther. What do you think?
Thatâs what I think is so great about comics and the Marvel cinematic universe. As you know, the notion of Black Panther is a mantle almost as much as the character, so thereâs a lot of ways to explore great ideas for a âPantherâ sequel that wonât invalidate what happened in âInfinity War,â and that gets us excited, just the breadth of stories you can tell, which is great.