Chadwick Boseman on Klaue being the real villain of Black Panther

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Still in mourning over the assassination of his father in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, Ryan Coogler's BLACK PANTHER will find T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) struggling to adjust to his new position as King of Wakanda. In addition to the guilt he feels in taking his father's throne far sooner than was expected, T'Challa must deal with unrest among the tribal leaders of Wakanda as well as foes who would see him brought down, including Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis).

Chadwick Boseman spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the challenges T'Challa will face in BLACK PANTHER, and was asked whether Erik Killmonger was seeking to seize his throne. Boseman wouldn't say, but pointed to Klaue as being the real villain of the story.

I can’t really say. Klaue is the real villain. I can say that I identify with Killmonger’s character. It’s going to be a fun character. He definitely has a different point of view. They are polar opposites. A superhero movie is only as great as its villains. I think they both provide a piece of that.

That's not to say that Andy Serkis' character will be the main villain of BLACK PANTHER, but perhaps it points to Klaue having less shades of grey than Killmonger. As one of the few outsiders who knows the truth about Wakanda, there's a very real danger that he could tell the outside world about its secrets. As for the specific threat which Klaue poses to the people of Wakanda, Chadwick Boseman said that "Klaue has entered that space and knows more about it than anybody else. Because of that, he is a threat. Not to mention that he’s accessed this gift that could also be a curse to the rest of the world."

The "gift" which Chadwick Boseman speaks of is Vibranium, the rarest, most precious metal on earth. Boseman adds that the metal "can do a lot of things," and the fact that Ulysses Klaue has accessed it and has the mind to use it for evil is a presents a threat not just to Wakanda, but to the world at large. As for Klaue's plan, we'll have to wait a little longer to discover just what he has in mind, but Chadwick Boseman referred to the character "the Osama bin Laden of the movie." You can check out more details and more photos from the upcoming Marvel flick right here.

The official synopsis for BLACK PANTHER:

“Black Panther” follows T’Challa who, after the events of “Captain America: Civil War,” returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T’Challa’s mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk.

BLACK PANTHER arrives February 16, 2018.