Michael B. Jordan played one of the MCU's best villains in 2018's Black Panther when he suited up as T'Challa's cousin, Erik Killmonger.
The character died but returned in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever when Shuri encountered Killmonger in the Ancestral Plane. He attempted to mould her into a Black Panther like him, and their impactful exchange played heavily into the sequel's final act.
During a recent interview with GQ, Jordan reflected on his surprise MCU return and revealed that filmmaker Ryan Coogler never provided him with the movie's full script.
That ultimately didn't matter, because, for Jordan, it was about doing right by the late Chadwick Boseman.
"Coming back to do [Black] Panther 2 after the tragedy of losing Chadwick [Boseman] was an extremely tough one. I was in like, pre-production for Creed 3, so I was like, right getting ready to go direct," the actor explained. "At the time, I didn't even read the whole script, so I didn't know what the whole movie was about."
"[Ryan] Coog[ler], yeah, he's your own brother. He ain't even let me read the script, you know? It was crazy. Nah, but he kept that pretty, pretty close to the vest for a lot of different reasons. So I was just as excited as everybody else," Jordan continued. "You know what I'm saying? To watch the movie at the end, to kind of see what he did with the whole thing, to be perfectly honest."
"But it meant a lot to the cast. I think the short time I was there and, obviously, you know, the cast is extremely tight, and we all speak — it felt like we were all doing it for Chadwick. We did that movie for him," he concluded.
Many fans felt the Black Panther sequel should have revealed that Killmonger survived his battle with T'Challa, giving him a redemption arc as he then attempted to protect Wakanda from Namor. Judging by what Jordan is saying here about being busy working on Creed 3, that was never in the cards for him.
Recently, Jordan expressed empathy for the Marvel Studios' repeated attempts to get Blade off the ground. "Launching any franchise, it’s tough," he acknowledged. "I hope it gets together. I want to see a Blade movie, you know what I’m saying? The Blade franchise was everything."
Asked whether he's concerned by Marvel Studios' recent struggles to please fans and critics, the Sinners star responded, "[Marvel’s] doing great. They’ll get it back."
You can hear more from Jordan in the player below.