New Jaw-Dropping BLACK PANTHER Pics Give Us More Insights into the Upcoming Marvel Film

Remember that incredible trailer we got about six weeks ago for Black Panther? Remember how it hit you across the face with a giant heaping helping of Afro-futurism you didn’t even know you needed in your life and now you can’t get enough of it?

Well, hold on to that feeling because we have even more to share with you. Ahead of San Diego Comic Con next week, Entertainment Weekly has released twenty, yes twenty, new pictures from the film. They feature Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan as one of the villains, Erik Killmonger, Danai Gurira as one of the Dora Milaje, Okoye, and Forest Whittaker as Zuri.

Perhaps the most intriguing pictures of those of Prince T’Challa at Warrior Falls fighting Erik Killmonger while the Dora Milage watch on. Why is this intriguing? Because this is typically what happens when there’s a challenge to the throne. That is, if a warrior from another tribe feels that their tribe should lead Wakanda, they may challenge the current king in a fight and, should they win, then they become the King of Wakanda. The description accompanying the picture describes Warrior Falls as a “holy place in Wakanda” and refers to Killmonger as a “dissident and would-be usurper to the throne.”

It seems, in the power vacuum created by the death of T’Chaka in Captain America: Civil War, that a lot of tribes are now challenging T’Challa for leadership of their country. And with that leadership comes control over one of the world’s greatest resources — Vibranium. In the comics, Killmonger actually beat T’Challa to take over Wakanda at one point, though his reign was not long.

Speaking of Killmonger, in this picture we can see that he has “ritualistic tribal markings” on his chest — but producer Nate Moore is keeping quiet about them saying, “That is a story reveal that we’d like to preserve. In the comics, Killmonger was from another tribe and originally named N’Jadaka. His family was forced to fight King T’Chaka alongside Ulysses Klaw in a battle years ago. Killmonger, as a young boy, was then exiled to the US where he spent his youth developing the skills to take the country away from the Panther Tribe — it seems likely that these tribal markings are related to that.

Then, of course, there’s the Dora Milaje, the personal Kings Guard and Secret Service to the Wakandan King. Here we see Danai Gurira as Okoye, who leads the Dora Milaje, with two of her other warriors — Ayo, played by Florence Kasumba, whom we met in Civil War, and Nakia, played by Lupita Nyong’o. Nakia is described as “an operative traveling the world to protect Wakanda’s interests… and hunt its enemies.”

Finally, we wanted to bring attention to this picture which sees Princess Shuri, played by Letitia Wright, the little sister to the T’Challa. She’s standing with her mother Ramonda, played by Angela Bassett, who also stands with CIA Operative Everett Ross, played by Martin Freeman, and Nakia. The description EW offers for this picture is that they are on a trip to the icy regions of Wakanda where M’Baku (Winston Duke) rules the mountain tribe, which rules this region.

Why did we want to point this out? Mostly for the reference to the M’Baku as he is another Black Panther villain more commonly known as Man-Ape. He rules over the White Gorilla Clan who worship the outlawed white gorilla deity. It’s likely that M’Baku will also challenge T’Challa for the throne as this has also happened in the comics. At the very least, Killmonger and M’Baku will team up in some capacity to fight T’Challa, maybe even fighting alongside Ulysses Klaw, played by Andy Serkis.

There are a lot of other pictures here to dig through, but we’ve highlighted the ones we thought were important — at least to us. You can take a look at the remaining pictures below.