We can finally put a face to the name of the villain for Black Panther’s solo film, which is due out in July of 2018.
You ready for this? Casting for Black Panther is underway, and joining Chadwick Boseman is Person of Interest actor Winston Duke.
According to Variety, Duke has landed the “key role” of M’Baku, also known as Man-Ape.
M’Baku is native is Wakanda and became the country’s second greatest warrior, after Black Panther, of course. His greatest desire was to overthrow the current Wakandan rulers and take the thrown for himself.
The warrior gained his powers by bathing in white gorilla blood and eating the creature’s flesh, taking on the name Man-Ape. He has the abilities of the rare Wakandan white gorilla, which includes superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina and durability. He’s also an excellent fighter with military training.
His relationship with T’Challa in particular is complicated, so it should provide an interesting story when Black Panther hits theaters in a couple years.
The movie will be directed by Ryan Coogler and stars Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Danai Gurira as Okoye, and Michael B. Jordan as Erik Killmonger. Andy Serkis is rumored to be returning as Ulysses Klaue (Klaw), last seen in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
In the comics, Nakia and Okoye became the first Dora Milaje to serve under T’Challa when he brought back the tradition of having the Dora Milaje serve as the Black Panther’s personal bodyguards.
Erik Killmonger, on the other hand, is another native of Wakanda who doesn’t exactly get along with T’Challa. He also has ties to Klaw.