Footage Of Marvel’s Black Panther Movie Has The Women Front And Center

Another surprise hit yesterday when reporters were being taken for a tour through Marvel’s corporate offices in Burbank when they were suddenly treated to a sizzle reel and some comps from their upcoming Black Panther film. It’s still Marvel that leads the pack with the ability to have a single scene in a film that will leave fans commenting – we want a film about that one character or around one scene. One of those scenes was from Captain America: Civil War when one of the Dora Milaje (Ayo, played by Florence Kasumba) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) stand in each other’s way and Ayo simply says “move or be moved.” They didn’t even have to come to blows to know that the fight would have put the Cap/Winter Soldier vs Iron Man duel to shame. Now we don’t just get a Black Panther by himself (though T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman does a great job), we also get the Dora Milaje in force.

The Dora are the Wakandan ruler’s all-female elite bodyguard and strike force. In addition to Ayo, we now also get at least Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Okoye (The Walking Dead’s Danai Gurira). Reports of the footage have the force front and center of the film alongside T’Challa, including Nakia wiping out a squad of soldiers by herself. They also seem to play a part in the raising of Wakanda’s new king (with this film’s events happening shortly after the death of T’Challa’s father and prior ruler in Civil War).

The award winning director Ryan Coolger (Fruitvale Station, Creed), says in the reel:

The story’s just gonna be very honest and grim

Nyong’o says:

The main thrust is tradition vs. progress, and the issue of secrets.

Another scene features a battle between Klaw (Andy Serkis) and T’Challa and his bodyguards. He holds back, letting his guards lead the defense before he steps in for the counterattack.

The film overall is still very much in production on sound stages around Hollywood East Atlanta and the footage was far from complete, but the scenes that were shown helped give a sense of what kind of tone if will wind up having. Marvel’s not shying away from going dark when it feels it needs to for their stories. They’ve managed to make compelling (and successful) film adaptations of relatively lesser known characters (I mean a Raccoon and a hero called Ant-Man, and the films wound up being good, anyway). With the excitement around Panther, we can probably expect to see a full trailer in Hall H in July in San Diego and while Boseman will get his ovation, we can expect that when the Dora Milaje take the stage, everyone will be moved.