Marvel Cinematic Universe fans were introduced to Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War, but early next year he'll be center stage all by himself in his own movie. Actual details about what Black Panther will be about have been few and far between but recently, executive producer Nate Moore spoke about where the movie fits in the MCU timeline and how it will carry the story of T'Challa forward. According to Moore...
Black Panther takes place right after the events of Civil War, so T'Challa's father has just been killed, he has returned home to Wakanda, and T'Challa has to navigate potentially becoming the new ruler of this nation. He never intended to become the king for years because he figured his dad would be around for a long time. T'Chaka's death is, in a lot of ways, the catalyst for everything that's happening in Black Panther.
The post-credits scene in Captain America: Civil War gave us our briefest glimpse at T'Challa's home, the African nation of Wakanda. He brought The Winter Soldier there in the hopes that the country's advanced technology could assist in deprogramming him. Now that T'Challa is home, and his father is dead, he will turn his attention to taking over as the nation's leader, though Nate Moore uses the word "potentially" here in his comments with Complex, which means that it's far from a foregone conclusion that T'Challa will be the next king.
At least part of the reason that T'Challa might not be automatically following in his father's footsteps, based on these comments, is the idea that the man himself may not feel ready. This is an element that we haven't heard a lot about recently. While we knew that there would potentially be other characters also looking to take advantage of T'Chaka's death for their own political gain, the idea that T'Challa wasn't quite ready for this time to come is new. In Captain America: Civil War he did not hesitate to put on the Black Panther armor and fight to avenge his father, he seemed more than prepared to assume the role of king, but perhaps that's not the case after all.
It will be interesting to see how much of Black Panther is designed to be a political story, with different sides of Wakanda jockeying for position in order to take over the nation, versus being a more personal story for T'Challa, dealing with his fears regarding taking over the country so much earlier than he expected.
We're certainly looking forward to the release of Black Panther next year. Until then we'll have to keep ourselves busy with a pair of additional MCU films. Spider-Man: Homecoming is set for release next month, while Thor: Ragnarok is ready to debut in November.
