Playing Erik Killmonger in Black Panther, Michael B. Jordan gets to wear a number of cool and interesting costumes, but none of them stand out as much as his look without a shirt. This is because Killmonger makes a habit of scarring himself every time he kills a person, and has used his entire body as a canvas of sorts. But exactly how many cuts does he sport? Michael B. Jordan recently told me,
Ah man, it was something like... I wanna say it was something like maybe 2,200 or something. It was a few of them. We had a couple bets to figure out exactly how many was in there. But I can't remember exactly, the number.
I had a fantastic time sitting down with Michael B. Jordan a few weeks ago, discussing his views on Wakandan border policy and actors he'd like to see join the Black Panther family, and one topic I broached was the number of scars the character sports. As you can see, Jordan couldn't tell me an exact figure (it wasn't clear if nobody ever counted or if he just forgot the number), but he estimated that it's somewhere north of a couple thousand.
As we learned from a character description released a few weeks ago, Erik Killmonger is introduced as an American black-ops soldier and trained killer who has traveled all around the globe on mercenary work. His real name is Erik Stevens, but he earned the nickname "Killmonger" because few could match his career body count. Or as Michael B. Jordan bluntly put it during our Black Panther junket interview,
He's been killing for a long time. You get more information in the movie, but yeah, he's been killing for a while.
While saying much more about the character would be providing spoilers, it's worth recognizing that Erik Killmonger is not only an incredibly dangerous physical threat for Black Panther, but also a serious challenge in the philosophy department as well. It makes for a tremendous protagonist/antagonist conflict in the Ryan Coogler-directed film, and it's easily one of the best of the established Marvel Cinematic Universe.
You can watch Michael B. Jordan discuss his scars and the extreme number of kills racked up by Erik Killmonger in Black Panther by clicking play on the video below.
Michael B. Jordan -- who previously worked with Ryan Coogler on both Fruitvale Station and Creed -- is just one member of an amazing ensemble of actors that populate Black Panther, including Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Martin Freeman, Andy Serkis, Winston Duke, and Daniel Kaluuya. The movie will be in theaters this Friday, February 16th, and be sure to stay tuned for more from my interviews with the cast and filmmakers here on CinemaBlend!
