So a sizzle reel for Ryan Coogler's BLACK PANTHER was screened by Marvel at a special open house at the company’s Los Angeles offices recently. And apparently the footage was pretty badass (but is that any surprise?) Scenes that were described include:
– Chadwick Boseman kicking ass and taking names as T’Challa, the eponymous Black Panther.
– Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia (a member of Dora Milaje, the king’s female bodyguards) beating the crap out of a large group of assailants single-handedly in the jungle.
– Martin Freeman (as Everett Ross) and Andy Serkis (as Ulysses Klaue) talking shit to each other, right before a fight with Black Panther and crew in tow (“Well, you brought quite the entourage, do you have a mixtape coming out?” “Oh yeah, I’ll actually send you link.”)
Missing in action, however, is Michael B. Jordan as one of the villains of the film, Erik Killmonger (with a name like that, is anyone surprised he'd turn out bad?) Though artwork during the sizzle reel showed Jordan sporting some luscious locks of hair, befitting the comic character he's portraying.
When the footage was done, this is what Coogler had to say:
I’m super excited about an African king who is also strong enough, fast enough, smart enough to do some of the things that T’Challa is going to do in this film.
To which Jordan added:
The story is just going to be very honest and gritty…I think it’s a lot of the right ingredients that we have to make something really special.
So hype!
Meanwhile, BLACK PANTHER will kick all the asses in theaters Feb. 16th, 2018.