Black Panther
T'Challa
Movie · Phase 3
Black Panther
2018 · 134 min
T'Challa returns home to be crowned king of a nation that has hidden the most advanced technology on Earth behind a hologram of farmland for centuries. His first act as king is a Klaue manhunt in…
The Infinity SagaDisney+96%Released
The story
T'Challa returns home to be crowned king of a nation that has hidden the most advanced technology on Earth behind a hologram of farmland for centuries. His first act as king is a Klaue manhunt in Busan; his second is discovering his father murdered his uncle in Oakland in 1992 and left a child behind.
Erik Stevens comes to Wakanda with a legitimate claim, a legitimate grievance and a plan to arm the world's oppressed, and he is right about the diagnosis and wrong about the cure. The film's ending — Wakanda opening an outreach centre on the block where the body fell — is the most politically specific thing Marvel has ever done.
Key facts
- Release date
- 16 Feb 2018
- Status
- Released
- Phase
- Phase 3
- Saga
- The Infinity Saga
- Runtime
- 134 min
- Certificate
- PG-13
- Director
- Ryan Coogler
- Writers
- Ryan Coogler, Joe Robert Cole
- Streaming
- Disney+
- Timeline placement
- 2016 — one week after Captain America: Civil War, with a 1992 Oakland prologue
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Chadwick Boseman | T'Challa / Black Panther |
| Michael B. Jordan | Erik 'Killmonger' Stevens |
| Lupita Nyong'o | Nakia |
| Danai Gurira | Okoye |
| Letitia Wright | Shuri |
| Andy Serkis | Ulysses Klaue |
| Angela Bassett | Ramonda |
Characters
Easter eggs
- The post-credits scene reveals Bucky Barnes recovered in Wakanda, greeted by children calling him 'White Wolf' — the alias of a Wakandan operative in the comics.
- Stan Lee cameos as a Busan casino patron offering to look after T'Challa's winnings.
- Wakandan design borrows from real African cultures throughout: Basotho blankets for the Border Tribe, Ndebele neck rings for the Merchant Tribe and Suri lip plates for the River Tribe elder.
- Klaue's sonic arm is built on the prosthetic he needed after Ultron severed his hand in Age of Ultron, and his neck brand reads 'thief' in Wakandan.
- Shuri's 'another broken white boy for us to fix' refers to Bucky's ongoing deprogramming.
- Everett Ross' 'colonizer' nickname and his role flying a remote fighter invert the white-saviour role the character occupies in older comics.
- The Hatut Zeraze, Wakanda's disbanded secret police, are referenced through the White Wolf name and W'Kabi's private guard.
- Killmonger's final line quotes enslaved Africans who chose the ocean over the ships, delivered watching a Wakandan sunset his father described.
Trivia
- It became the first superhero film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and won three Oscars: Costume Design, Production Design and Original Score.
- Ruth E. Carter became the first Black woman to win the Costume Design Oscar for her work here.
- Ludwig Göransson travelled to Senegal to study with Baaba Maal and to South Africa for choral recording before writing the score.
- Wakandan is performed in isiXhosa, coached by John Kani, who plays T'Chaka and whose son Atandwa plays the younger version.
- Killmonger's raised scars were hundreds of individually applied practical appliances, requiring hours in the chair.
- Kendrick Lamar curated and largely wrote the companion album Black Panther: The Album, which topped the Billboard 200.
- The film crossed $700 million domestically, still the highest domestic gross of any MCU film other than Endgame.
Box office
- Budget
- $200 million
- Worldwide
- $1.349 billion
- Domestic
- $700.4 million
Reviews
Critics
96%
Black Panther elevates superhero cinema to thrilling new heights while telling one of the MCU's most absorbing stories — and introducing some of its most fully realised characters.
The MarvelGossips verdict
Still the most confident film Marvel has released, and the only one whose politics survive contact with its third act. Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger is the franchise's best antagonist because the movie agrees with him. The CG rhino-and-vibranium finale is the one weak stretch, and it costs the film nothing.
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Related reading
The Wakandan Glyphs Decoded: The Real African Script Hiding In Every Black Panther Frame
Wakanda's written language is not invented. It is Nsibidi, a real West African script, and once you know that…
Frequently asked
Did Black Panther win Oscars?
Yes, three: Best Costume Design for Ruth E. Carter, Best Production Design for Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart, and Best Original Score for Ludwig Göransson. It was also the first superhero film nominated for Best Picture.
Is Killmonger the MCU's best villain?
He is the most commonly cited, and for a specific reason: his critique of Wakandan isolationism is treated as correct, and T'Challa's arc is conceding the point. The film does not need him to be wrong to make him lose.
When is Black Panther set?
Roughly a week after Captain America: Civil War, in 2016, with a prologue in Oakland in 1992. T'Challa is newly bereaved and not yet crowned when the film opens.
Why is Bucky in the post-credits scene?
T'Challa granted him asylum at the end of Civil War, and Wakandan scientists have been dismantling his HYDRA conditioning. The scene sets up his return as the White Wolf in Infinity War.