Black Panther: Lupita Nyong'o teases first plot and villain details
She's set to play Nakia, a member of T'Challa's personal bodyguard unit, the Dora Milaje
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Your support makes all the difference.Marvel's Black Panther had a big moment at the studio's Comic-Con panel.
Confirming its central cast, Marvel brought out on stage Lupita Nyong'o, Michael B. Jordan, The Walking Dead's Danai Gurira, and the Panther himself, Chadwick Boseman; alongside director Ryan Coogler. The panel then went on to reveal a few choice character details: Jordan will be playing villain Erik Killmonger, and Nyong'o and Gurira will play members of T'Challa's personal bodyguard unit, the Dora Milaje.
Nyong'o, however, has since let a few small - but potentially significant - details slip about the film; firstly telling Entertainment Weekly that her character Nakia may have a complicated relationship with the Dora Milaje leader, Okoye (Gurira).
The actress then revealed, "The story is that Black Panther’s leadership is being threatened by two foes that come together, and so Black Panther gets the help of the CIA and the Dora Milajei to try to defeat the enemy. Oh dear. Someone is going to fire me shortly. I have to shut up now."
We already know Killmonger will form one of those foes, but what of the other? CinemaBlend has an interesting theory that the secondary enemy will be none other than Nakia herself, tying into her role in the comics in which her unrequited love for T'Challa leads her to join Killmonger; which may in turn explain the source of her complex relationship with Okoye, if she is the one T'Challa falls in love with instead.
However, romance is rarely the driving force in Marvel films and so it seems fairly unlikely Black Panther would choose to take this route; with the secondary foe far more likely to be Andy Serkis' Ulysses Klaw, introduced in Age of Ultron in a role so brief, it seemed to do nothing but set him up for a future appearance.
We can also already assume T'Challa's CIA contact will be none other than Martin Freeman's Everett Ross, with the two already having crossed paths in Captain America: Civil War.
Black Panther hits UK cinemas 6 July 2018.
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