If you didn't catch BLACK PANTHER in theaters, or are simply excited to add it to your Marvel Cinematic Universe collection, the Ryan Coogler film will soon be hitting home-media, and a new deleted scene from the film has been released for your viewing pleasure. Taking place after Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) has overthrown T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the deleted scene finds Okoye (Danai Gurira) and W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya) having a tense confrontation over what should be done. It's a powerful scene, which leaves you wondering why it was left out, but executive producer Nate Moore spoke about it on the Empire Film Podcast earlier this year and revealed why it was cut.
So in the film it is more than hinted at that they’re a couple, but there is a scene directly after Killmonger takes the throne where you hear both characters articulate their point of view as to why they should or shouldn’t follow this man and it’s one of the most well-acted scenes I’ve ever been a part of. Unfortunately, it occurred at a point in the movie where audiences just wanted to get to the resolution and so it slowed down a part of the movie and we were afraid audiences were checking out. We were also afraid if we took it out we’re going to ruin this movie—‘guys we’re going to ruin this movie; let’s not take it out.’ We didn’t take it out for three or four screenings and we finally took it out and I think Ryan and I were probably the last men on that beach saying don’t take it out.
BLACK PANTHER will be released on Digital on May 8th, followed by a DVD/Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD release on May 15th.