The trailer for “Black Panther” has finally arrived and, by the looks of it, this Marvel world will take us on one helluva ride.
In the nearly two-minute teaser, Chadwick Boseman reprises his role as T’Challa (aka the Black Panther) and returns home as king of Wakanda ― a mysterious, powerful and vividly colorful African world. There, we meet a star-studded cast with Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye and, T’Challa’s nemesis, Erik Killmonger, played by Michael B. Jordan.
The teaser, which dropped during Game 4 of the NBA finals, opens with Klaw (Andy Serkis) chained to a chair asking Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) what he knows about Wakanda. When Ross says that it’s a third world country with “cool outfits,” Klaw reveals Wakanda’s true secret, claiming that he is the only person to have ever seen the country and make it out alive.
“Explorers have searched for it, called it El Dorado,” Klaw growls. “They looked for it in South America, but it was in Africa the whole time.”
Wakanda, as it appears in the trailer, is a mix of traditional and modern, natural and sleek, and is brimming with waterfalls. Its people are as Ross had suggested — ornate and vibrantly dressed — but they also prove to be as fierce as T’Challa himself.
And, of course, a generous amount of time was used to show the Black Panther’s own super-hero strength and impenetrable armor.
While the trailer is packed with action and fantasy, Boseman’s co-star Sterling K. Brown has said that the film raises “really provocative questions” and is “politically astute” and “socially relevant.”
“It’s not just an action film,” Brown told Entertainment Tonight. “It addresses the climate today of Africans and African-Americans ― across the country and across the world ― in a way that people will really be excited about.”
“Black Panther,” directed by Ryan Coogler and based on the comic book series (for which Ta-Nehisi Coates is currently writing), is due to screen in theaters this February.
This story has been updated to show that Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of many writers contributing to the “Black Panther” series.
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