Everything You Need to Know (or Remember) Before Seeing Black Panther

One drawback to a sprawling, decade-long franchise containing nearly 20 movies and complicated interlocking mythologies is that sometimes (okay, most of the time) it can be hard to keep track of all the overlapping characters and plot threads. The burden of serving the larger franchise has the potential to bury any individual film (see: Avengers: Age of Ultron); more often, it can be intimidating and disorienting to jump into the middle of a franchise already in progress.

The good news is that Marvel has started to learn its lesson on this front—and its latest film, Black Panther, can stand almost entirely on its own. That’s especially good news given early box office reports indicating that Black Panther is tracking to have potentially the biggest debut in Marvel history. In other words, a number of people who have never seen a single Marvel movie in their life will probably be lining up to see what Black Panther has to offer.

Will they be lost without seeing the 17 other movies that came before it? They won’t. But just in case anyone wants a quick refresher on the groundwork Marvel Studios has been laying down for Black Panther’s first big solo outing, here’s everything you need to know (or remember) before heading to the movies this weekend.

What Is Wakanda? Is Wakanda real? I mean, no, it’s not. But don’t worry too much about knowing too much about this highly secretive, technologically advanced African nation ahead of the movie. A fun and comprehensive prologue at the beginning of Black Panther will take care of that for you. It’s nice to be aware, though, that Wakanda has been on Marvel Studios’ mind for awhile now. The first reference to the nation dates back to a visual Easter Egg in 2010’s Iron Man 2. The country was mentioned (and mispronounced) in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, but Wakanda truly stepped out of hiding for the first time in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, in which Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther made his debut.

Why Is It So Secret? Once again, the Black Panther prologue has you covered on this front. But if you want to know the full history of Wakanda in the Marvel movies, here it is in a nutshell: precious Wakandan metal called Vibranium (more on that in a second), stolen in the plot of Ultron, inspired Wakanda to go on an outreach mission to, at the very least, Nigeria by the time of Civil War. A superhero called Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olson) accidentally blew up those Wakandan missionaries when trying to contain a completely separate threat.

This inspired the Wakandan king, T’Chaka (John Kani), to address the U.N. with a handy recap:

When stolen Wakandan vibranium was used to make a terrible weapon, we in Wakanda were forced to question our legacy. Those men and women killed in Nigeria were part of a goodwill mission from a country too long in the shadows. We will not, however, let misfortune drive us back. We will fight to improve the world we wish to join.

The fact that Wakanda stayed hidden before Civil War explains why we never saw Wakandans on the scene before during times of world-ending crisis in the Marvel franchise. Sadly, King T’Chaka’s message of goodwill was interrupted by another explosion at the U.N. that killed the king—much to the dismay of his son, T’Challa (Boseman), who tried and failed to save his father from the blast. Now, T’Challa is the king.

Okay, What’s So Special About Vibranium? It’s only the strongest metal in the world, guys. Once again, Black Panther will go over this, but Marvel movie nerds will eagerly tell you that Vibranium is the stuff Captain America’s (Chris Evans) unbreakable shield is made of.

The titular supervillain in Age of Ultron also stole Vibranium in order to make a massive drill that would crack the earth down the middle. You know, typical supervillain stuff. And it happens to be the material that powers Black Panther’s catsuit (more on that in a second).

The point is: Vibranium is strong, versatile, and rare. If you had a massive cache of that stuff, wouldn’t you want to keep it hidden from the world, too?

Who Is The Black Panther? The more important question might be: who is this Black Panther person anyway, and why does he wear such a fun and sassy catsuit? Once again, Black Panther will cover this. But to quote T’Challa himself from Civil War: Black Panther is a mantle passed down through the generations. The Black Panther is not necessarily the king of Wakanda; T’Challa was the Black Panther when he was still a prince, presumably because his father had gotten too old for the gig. But the Black Panther is usually the king, and now that T’Chaka is dead, his son T’Challa is both: king and Black Panther.

And while secret identities might be all the rage in some comic books movies, Marvel Studios doesn’t really do that (with the exception of Spider-Man). So, yes, in Civil War T’Challa unmasked himself in front of the Avengers and some other government officials. He’s not exactly shouting “I fight crime in a catsuit!” from the rooftops, but he’s not always hiding it either. Plenty of people know who the Black Panther is. The secrets of Wakanda itself are the ones T’Challa is more interested in protecting.

What About the Rest of the Wakandans? Once again, most of Wakanda has been kept under wraps in this franchise—but T’chaka and T’Challa didn’t go to the U.N. alone in Civil War. The king and his son were accompanied by royal bodyguards called the Dora Milaje which, hold on to your hats, are an all-female group of warriors. The bodyguard we saw in Civil War is a character named Ayo, played by German actress Florence Kasumba. She appears again as right-hand woman to General Okoye (Danai Gurira) in Black Panther.

What About the White Dudes, Though?Black Panther has exactly two white characters of note, and they are both figures we’ve seen before in Marvel movies. The first is Everett Ross played by The Hobbit, Sherlock, and The Office star Martin Freeman with a somewhat patchy American accent. (Though a marked improvement on his Fargo attempt.) Ross is in the C.I.A., and in his minor role in Civil War, he was equally suspicious of everyone, including our heroes Captain America, Black Panther, et al. Basically, all you need to know is that he’s C.I.A., former military, and he knows T’Challa is the Black Panther.

But just because Ross represents bureaucracy, that doesn’t mean he’s no fun at all. Once he figured out who the true bad guy in Civil War was (Baron Ze—look, don’t worry about it), Freeman got to unleash his considerable smarmy charisma.

And speaking of charisma, we also have Ulysses Klaue, played by another Hobbit star: Andy Serkis. Don’t let the terrible spelling of his name fool you; instead, focus on the pronunciation: “Ulysses Claw.” This villainous South African arms dealer lost, well, an arm to the titular supervillain in Age of Ultron, leaving him with, you guessed it, some manner of prosthetic replacement—a.k.a. a claw. Yep, we’re deep in comic book territory here.

Klaue met Ultron because he was sitting on top of a load of stolen Vibranium, which Ultron needed. (You remember. Evil plot. Drill. Cracked earth.) Klaue stole the Vibranium from Wakanda and claims to be the only man to have invaded Wakanda, escaped, and lived to tell the tale.

Anything Else I Should Know About Vibranium, Wakanda, Etc.? Not really, though T’Challa has a nice speech in Civil War about Wakanda’s belief in an afterlife. After his father, T’Chaka, has been killed, T’Challa slowly puts the royal ring on his own finger and tells Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson): “In my culture, death is not the end. It's more of a stepping-off point. You reach out with both hands, and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into the green veld where you can run forever.” Will that notion come back around in the Black Panther solo movie? Tune in to find out.

Oh, And One Last Thing: Did I forget to mention the brainwashed Soviet supersoldier whom Captain America left on ice in T’Challa’s basement at the end of Civil War? My bad. Meet Bucky Barnes, a.k.a. The Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). He used to be best friends with Captain America back in the 40s, until they were both turned into government science projects. Bucky was manipulated into thinking he needed to kill for the bad guys, but the strength of friendship started to bring him back to the light. Yadda yadda yadda, he’s got some healing to do, and he needs to do it out of the spotlight. Where better to store him than Wakanda? Does good old Bucky return in Black Panther? That’s for me to know and you to find out.

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