Hi, I'm Erik Voss, and we have our first trailer for Marvel's Black Panther!
Directed by Ryan Coogler and with Chadwick Boseman returning as the
character from Captain America: Civil War. And this trailer is crazy. I don't know
what is going on, and I kind of love that. Everything looks so new and mysterious,
but I'm going to break down all the missable details, what we know about all
these characters, and why their secret society looks so much cooler than
ours does. Okay, let's get started.
"Tell me something. What do you know about
Wakanda? It's a third world country. Textiles. Shepherds. Cool outfits. All a front."
Okay, so this opening section shows us Martin Freeman's Everett Ross, the CIA
agent that we saw in Captain America: Civil War, interrogating this guy - Ulysses
Klaue, played by Andy Serkis. Now, we last saw Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron. He
was the black market arms dealer in South Africa with the stolen vibranium
that he handed over to Ultron before getting his arm cut off for dissing
Ultron in the worst possible way. "Tony Stark used to say that. Do I look like
Iron Man? Stark is nothing!" And now we learn where Klaue got that vibranium, the African
kingdom of Wakanda. So Wakanda is the home of Black Panther, and the MCU
has been teasing this for a while now, as far back as Iron Man 2 the country
was circled on the map in the background, and then in the post-credits sequence for Civil
War we finally got a full glimpse of it. And these misty waterfalls that we see
both in the post-credits screen and in this trailer looked like they're part of
the same natural barrier, like this is how Wakanda hides itself from the outside
world to prevent outsiders or satellites or like, annoying drones from being
able to peek in. And I like how Ross teases us by saying Wakanda is known
for its cool outfits. There's obviously a double meaning here - he's referring both
to the traditional garb worn by the UN delegates in Civil War, but he's also
talking about an even cooler outfit, the woven vibranium suit of Black Panther,
arguably the coolest outfit that we've seen in the MCU. And I'll get to that
suit later, but for now let's move on. "Explorers have searched for it.
Called it El Dorado. They've looked for it in South America, but it was in Africa the whole time."
Okay, here it's interesting that Klaue refers to Wakanda as El Dorado. He's
referencing the mythical city of gold sought-after by Spanish explorers in
South America. It's a pretty appropriate comparison because this hidden African
El Dorado contains an even more valuable metal: vibranium. So Wakanda acquired
its rich, unique supply of vibranium from a meteor that crashed there long in the
past. It allowed the country to flourish technologically way earlier than the
rest of the world. And only very small amounts of the metal have ever made it
out of Wakanda, like the vibranium that was used to make Captain America's shield.
Now we know this movie takes place directly after the events of Captain
America: Civil War, the death of his father King T'Chaka in Vienna resulted
in T'Challa taking up the mantle of Black Panther and king of Wakanda.
But like any time a king dies, there's a power struggle, so other rivals have
returned to try to claim the throne, and T'Challa has to fight them off to
prove himself worthy. And I think that's what's happening here.
T'Challa is deboarding his Royal Talon Fighter, and shirtless, showing off
these tribal tattoos as if walking into gladiator combat, with all of his
Wakandan fans cheering him on. He's also holding a shield here. Now, maybe I'm
crazy, but this could be Captain America's shield. Remember at the end of
Civil War, Cap left it behind at that Siberian Hydra base after his fight with
Iron Man. So maybe like Panther came across the shield and was like you know,
I've been clawing the crap out of this thing, it's got to be vibranium, which
means it was metal stolen from my freaking homeland, that's it, I'm taking
it back, damn it. Or maybe Black Panther just picked it up to hold on to for Cap,
and maybe that Civil War post-credit scene was Cap coming back to pick it up?
Or maybe it's a different shield. Anyway, there's a quick shot of Forest
Whitaker's character, Zuri, who I'll talk about in a bit, but before I move on, I
love the look of this shot with these majestic cliffside waterfalls and
colorful tribal costumes. The cinematographer on the film was Rachel
Morrison, who recently shot the movie Dope. That movie was super colorful.
Morrison is just so great at using vibrant colour palettes to make every
image pop. Okay, let's move on. "I was the only one who's seen it and made it out alive."
Okay, so here Black Panther ambushes this group of rebel soldiers, or
poachers, or smugglers, or just people who stupidly crossed into the Wakanda border.
Anyway, I love how this shot shows him stealthily perched on a branch like Black
panthers are known to do in the wild. I also like how the dog is barking up at
him, because yeah, dogs are known to bark at cats in trees in the wild. We also
get to see his suit and fighting skills in action. Now, the vibranium suit is
bulletproof, and he has increased strength. Now, in the comics, that
strength comes from T'Challa eating a special herb from soil with trace
minerals of vibranium. This guy's like... all metal. Now check out these soldiers'
uniforms and trucks and radios. They seem a little old, right? Like, maybe 80s or
early 90s? Now, I guess these soldiers might just have older gear, but I'm
predicting that this is all part of a flashback, like maybe this isn't T'Challa
Black Panther, but his father T'Chaka as a younger man. Now, later in this trailer,
we're going to see a slightly different Black Panther suit, which could just be
an upgrade or a redesign, or we're seeing two different suits because we're seeing
two different generations of Black Panthers. Let's move on.
So here T'Challa is observing Klaue's interrogation with Okoye, played by Danai Gurira,
aka Michonne from The Walking Dead. She's a bodyguard from the Dora Milaje, that's
the king of Wakanda's all-female Royal Guard. You might remember one of these
bodyguards threatening Black Widow during Civil War. "Move. Or you will be
moved." And it looks like Gurira will get a chance to show off some of her
Walking Dead fighting skills later in the trailer. Now how is Klaue is able to see
through the one-way mirror? Like sure, maybe he's just insane, but I'm thinking
this could be connected to his origin in the comics. So, originally Klaue was the
one who kills T'Chaka, and he loses his hand shortly afterward when
T'Challa attacks him trying to avenge his father's death. And then later, Klaue adds
to his stump a prosthetic sonic gun, that allows him to create objects using only
sound. He also transforms himself into like an
immortal beam that's made of sound, so maybe the movie version of Klaue has a
similar power that's related to sound, allowing him to hear using super
hearing, or using sound waves to echolocate, or maybe like sense vibrations
that enable him to kind of see through this mirror wall. And before I move on
look in the background here I could be wrong but that kind of looks like Steve
Rogers, Captain America, on the TV monitor. He's wearing similar clothes to when he
was the fugitive in Civil War, and we know from that post-credit scene that
Cap was recently in Wakanda. So I'm curious, do you think that we're going to
see Captain America show up in this movie? And if so, do you think any other
MCU characters might show up , too? Like which ones do you want to see? Let me
know in the comments, but for now let's move on.
"The world is changing. Soon, there will only be the conquered
and the conquerers." okay this section gives us this gorgeous wide shot of Wakanda,
which is a massive, futuristic metropolis, even with its own expansive
transportation grid. The whole look and design of this city seems to be inspired
by Ta Nehisi Coats' recent run of the Black Panther comics. But really, this
looks like something out of like, The Guardians of the Galaxy, or the Thor
movies. So even though Black Panther is set on Earth, in this dimension, it's
still going to have that eye-popping comic book feel that these recent Marvel
movies have had. By the way, you can check out the breakdowns that I've done of
these other cosmic colorful visuals in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and in the
Thor: Ragnarok trailer. Okay so next is this shot of Zuri, played by Forest
Whitaker. He's a spiritual elder in this kingdom and a friend to T'Chaka, and
director Ryan Coogler describes him as an Obi-Wan Kenobi figure. Personally I've
always seen him as more of a Saw Gerrera figure, but whatever. Then we see this guy
putting on a tribal mask as he breaks Klaue out of the holding cell. Now we get
a better look at them later but this is N'Jadaka, better known as Erik
Killmonger, played by Michael B Jordan. Now, his family was exiled from Wakanda when
he was a boy for helping Klaue get into the kingdom. So he went to America and
took on the name Killmonger and became this super fit, super educated badass,
just waiting to get his revenge on T'Challa. And the mask that he wears here
is similar to the tribal mask that he wears in the comics. And I think
Killmonger challenging T'Challa for claim to the throne will be one of the main
obstacles for this movie. And it looks like he and Klaue will be working
together in trying to destabilize T'Challa's authority in Wakanda. Then, we
meet another character Lupita Nyong'o as Nakia. She's another warrior in the Dora
Milaje. Now in the comics, she's a love interest to T'Challa,
and she's later corrupted and given powers by Killmonger, who gives her the
name Malice. We'll see if things go this way in the
movie, but in this shot, Nakia is walking through this casino, which I think is
part of the sequence that takes place in South Korea.
Apparently there's a major chase sequence that was shot in Busan, and
we'll see a few shots on that later in the trailer. And throughout this section,
we hear this warning from T'Challa's father, T'Chaka. "The world is changing. There will
only be the conquered and the conquerers." So again, I feel like
there's probably some kind of flashback sequence in this movie, unless the T'Chaka
is speaking to his son from beyond the grave like Mufasa. Really these kind of
sound like words of wisdom that T'Chaka is saying to T'Chaka when he was a boy.
And this all hints to a major theme in this movie, whether or not Wakanda and
Black Panther can remain isolationist. Like, at some point, they're going to be
conquered or conquerors, either the hunted or the hunters. Now something
interesting is happening in this shot of T'Challa approaching his fellow Wakandans. At
first, I thought he was approaching a rival, kind of like, come on, what else you got?
But notice how his facial expression changes - it starts with a subtle smile of
familiarity, and then it drops to get more serious.
Maybe T'Challa is greeting his friends and family, but then he realizes that
something is wrong. Now based on the flames in the foreground of this shot,
this seems like it could be taking place in the aftermath of some kind of
battle or attack. So I don't know, I'm kind of feeling that maybe T'Challa is
like, coming home to find someone he loves has died? Or, maybe he's walking up
about to invite everyone out for drinks, and then he realizes that they were all
planning on hanging out without him. It happens to the best of us, T'Challa.
Anyway, let me know what you think is going on in this scene in the comments. But
before I move on, we get these quick shots of Klaue in a museum,
apparently in disguise. Now check out that patch. That crest is for the North
West ambulance service. Meaning this is probably somewhere in the UK, maybe the
British Museum in London. Now in the background, there are these various
African artifacts, like masks and head pieces. Maybe Klaue's hoping that one of
these will contain traces of vibranium, or some other clue to the location of
Wakanda, and it's his failed heist here that lands them in Ross's custody. Ok,
let's move on. "Step into the spotlight. You are a good man.
Step into the spotlight. With a good heart.
and it's hard for a good man to be a king." So, here we see T'Challa speaking at
another UN General Assembly meeting, and the music that plays here is "Legend Has
It" by hip-hop duo Run the Jewels. The lyrics of step into the spotlight is
another example of the theme that I talked about earlier, that in order to
save the kingdom, T'Challa will have to leave obscurity and literally step up
into the spotlight. "I suppose neither of us is used to the spotlight. Well, it's not
always so flattering." Now, it seems like in this trailer, they're going for a mix of
African tribal music and Western hip-hop, and I kind of like it, not everyone is
crazy about it, but I'm curious to see what kind of soundtrack that Ryan Coogler
ends up using in this movie. I really love the mix of music that he used for Creed.
But let me know what you think about this music in the comments. Next we get a
shot of Killmonger again, this time escorted by Daniel Kaluuya, an advisor to
T'Challa. Now you may know Kaluuya from the amazing movie that came out this year,
Get Out, and based on Killmonger's pose here, it looks like his hand could be
bound, like this could be a flashback to when he was exiled, or this is after he
helps Klaue and now he has to face his punishment. And this actor here is Isaach
De Bankoléy. He has a lip plate, which is a form of body modification practiced in
Ethiopia. Now in some tribes, the size of the disc connotes social or economic
importance, so I'm guessing that this guy is the leader of his particular tribe. It
looks like there's going to be some infighting between the tribes of Wakanda.
De Bankolé's character can be seen in the background of where Killmonger and
T'Challa fight in the pool. So I'm thinking in the absence of a king,
all the tribal elders meet and decide that combat is the only way they're
gonna be able to decide who the new king will be, but it looks like T'Challa has
another rival, M'Baku, also known as Man-Ape. He's played by Winston Duke, and in
the comics he gets his name by eating the flesh of the white gorilla and
bathing in its blood which gives him powers. And here M'Baku is the ruler of
the mountain tribe. He and his people live in a snowy mountain region of
Wakanda. We also meet a few other members of the T'Challa's family here -
his stepmother, Queen Ramanda, played by Angela Bassett, and notice how Ross is
with her in this shot, so maybe he's there to help broker a deal between the
different tribes. We also see Leticia Wright playing T'Challa's sister Shuri.
She's holding these awesome vibranium, Panther head hand cannons. Now
Wright has described her character is having the intelligence of Tony Stark, so
she's kind of like the Q from James Bond to T'Challa. Like, she uses vibranium
to design this clever weaponry and suit modifications. We also see a quick shot of
this South Korea chase sequence, but I'll talk more about it after we look at this
final section.
Okay, so Black Panther's suit is obviously upgraded here. When he smashes into the
hood of this SUV it releases a shockwave, which isn't something that happened in
Civil War when he did that. By the way, the bridge that he's on here is the
Gwangandaegyo bridge in Busan, South Korea, and it lights up with these
interesting purple colors at nighttime. But let's take a closer look at this
suit. This is definitely different from the one that we saw earlier in the
trailer and in Civil War. Like, the suit is sleeker and more form-fitting, and the
mask is different and has fewer vibranium stripes, and the eye holes are
larger. Now, lately in superhero movies, costumers and visual effects people have
been taking steps to try to make masked heroes' eyes more expressive, like in
Deadpool and in Civil War with Spider-man. They animated the eyes so
that the character has more personality when he's giving his lines, but here
Black Panther's eyes seem pretty rigid, so I'm curious to see how they get around
that in this movie. One way - they could show him more often with his mask off,
like they do with Captain America, or they could try something similar to what
they do with Iron man, cutting to a close-up of his inner helmet display.
Actually in the comics, some more advanced versions of Black Panther's suit
do have an inner CPU similar to Iron Man's. So maybe that's part of this redesign of
his new suit, like that's a new feature that Shuri put in just to nag T'Challa as
he's, you know, flipping over SUVs on bridges in South Korea, but let me know
your thoughts about Black Panther's masks. Like, do you want them to be more
expressive, with either an inner close-up like Iron Man's, or no mask at all? Or are
you cool with these rigid non-expressive eyes? Like I'll admit, it does make it
look way more intimidating. And make sure to weigh in on those other things that
I asked about, too - like any other MCU cameos you'd like to see and thoughts on
the music. Now, this movie is scheduled to release on February 16, 2018, and I am so
pumped for this movie. I feel like I did when I saw that first teaser of Doctor
Strange. Like, this movie looks so different and new, but still very Marvel
and fun. And you could subscribe to new rockstars to see all the other videos
where we break down all these Marvel properties. And as we wait for February,
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