Joe Robert Cole Shares BLACK PANTHER Details

While at a FX sponsored cocktail party, /Film had the chance to speak  Joe Robert Cole (The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story) about his current work on the Black Panther script.  A product of the Marvel Writer's Room, Cole went on to write the critically-acclaimed miniseries for FX before circling back to Marvel.  

Before jumping into his own work, Cole praised Chadwick's performance as T'Challa in Captain America: Civil War.  "First, I think Chadwick did a phenomenal job in Civil War in setting the tone for him being a king, for the nobility.  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."

Cole went on to add that he'll draw inspiration from surrounding African countries to craft Wakanda culture and heritage.  “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.”

At SDCC 2016 this past July, Lupita Nyong’o let slip that the upcoming MCU feature film will see T'Challa's freshly minted reign as King of Wakanda threatened by two different sources, forcing Black Panther to seek aid from the C.I.A. and the Dora Milaje.  

Thanks to Cole ,we now have confirmation that those two adversaries come from inside and outside Wakanda.  Obviously, the inside threat will be Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger.  It's heavily speculated but unconfirmed that the other (outside) threat will be Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaw, last seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron.  With the C.I.A. coming to Wakanda's aid, fans are expecting to see Martin Freeman's  Everett Ross, a character that was a mainstay during the third volume of the Black Panther solo comic book series from 1998.  

The Dora Milaje will be represented by Danai Gurira (Okoye), and Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia).