Now down here in DC, depending on your social circles, the annual Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference can be a fun week. In addition to various workshops and events sponsored by the CBC dedicated to their mission of "positively influencing the course of events pertinent to African-Americans and others of similar experience and situation," they also have various social activities, including countless balls and parties. If you’re lucky enough to score a ticket, it’s a hell of a fun time. This year, for a select few during the conference, it was even more exciting, thanks to Marvel.
Florida Rep Val Demmings, using her Marvel connections, sponsored a panel “Imagining a Bigger World— Marvel’s Black Panther, Cultural Heritage and STEM.” Included in the panel were Danai Gurira, who appears as Okoye in the upcoming film, Belinda Frazier, head of diversity and outreach at Disney, Black Panther executive producer Nate Moore, and Rick Loverd, the director of Science and Entertainment Exchange at the National Academy of Sciences. In addition to discussing STEM for African-Americans, those in attendance were able to see about 5 minutes of footage. Jason Johnson of The Root shared the details of the scenes he saw.
He describes a scene where T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and his royal bodyguards the Dora Milaje (Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira) confront Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) at a casino. Some of the footage was already shown in the first teaser trailer for the film, but much more in detail. It also appears that we will see a change in his Black Panther suit as it can morph via some sort of nanotechnology from his regular clothing like it did in the comics. We will also get to see Klaue's prosthetic arm transform into a weapon, like his sonic cannon in the comics. Johnson states that this will have Winter Soldier-level of extreme fight choreography.
“The action is kinetic, like a mixture of Coogler’s fight scenes from Creed and the manic bullet ballets from Kingsman movies.”Other scenes shown in the preview include T’Challa faces off against Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) where both of them have Black Panther suits that morph around them as they prepare for battle. Killmonger’s Black Panther suit seems to be red (and not gold like advertised on the new Black Panther toys coming out this Christmas). In another scene, M’Baku (Winston Duke), the leader of the White Gorilla Cult prepares to face off against T’Challa in another battle. Between Klaue, Killmonger, and M’Baku, T’Challa will have his hands full.
Black Panther hits theaters February 16, 2018.
Trav's Note: This is the same fight footage that I saw at Comic-Con, that they swore up and down would NEVER be released online. So far they've held true to that word. And oh yeah, the footage is simply incredible.
