'Black Panther' steals show for Marvel at Comic-Con

Fans go berserk for exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming superhero movie; teaser of third Thor film grabs eyeballs

July 23, 2017 10:12 pm | Updated July 24, 2017 09:46 am IST - SAN DIEGO

SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 22: (L-R) Actors Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo attend the Marvel Studios 'Thor: Ragnarok' Presentation during Comic-Con International 2017 at San Diego Convention Center on July 22, 2017 in San Diego, California.   Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP
== FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 22: (L-R) Actors Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo attend the Marvel Studios 'Thor: Ragnarok' Presentation during Comic-Con International 2017 at San Diego Convention Center on July 22, 2017 in San Diego, California. Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP == FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

Black Panther stole the show on Saturday night at Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con presentation, outshining the Ant-Man, Thor and even the ultimate Avengers team-up, Infinity War .

Fans went wild for the exclusive sneak peek at the upcoming superhero movie, featuring star Chadwick Boseman T’Challa intercepting a sketchy vibranium trade between Andy Serkis’ Klaw and Martin Freeman’s Everett. Set in an elegant, Japanese-inspired casino, the deal goes haywire and T’Challa and his security detail (Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira) jump to action in their evening gowns to retrieve the precious goods.

The clip was followed by the trailer for the film from Creed director Ryan Coogler and the 6,500 souls in the audience erupted into deafening cheers at the sight of T’Challa morphing into the Black Panther suit.

The film finds T’Challa returning to his home of Wakanda after the death of his father, the king.

“He’s still mourning his father’s death. It’s a transition period that gets interrupted, and he’s struggling with the type of king he wants to be,” said Mr. Boseman.

Undercover spy

Coogler, Boseman, Nyong’o, Gurira, Serkis and more of the cast were on hand in San Diego to talk about the film, out February 16, 2019.

Nyong’o described her character as a spy who goes undercover to report back to Wakanda about what is going on in the rest of the world.

“Wakanda is an isolated nation,” Nyongo said. “The world does not need to know what’s going on in Wakanda.”

Coogler said he’d always had a fondness for comic books, and found ‘Black Panther’ at a pivotal moment.

“I grew up as black kid in the Bay Area and grew up with comic books and it didn’t matter what colour the superheroes were. I read X-Men, I read Spider Man,” Coogler said. Then he started looking for a character that looked like him and he stumbled on Black Panther.

Marvel Studios also teased its third Thor film, Thor- Ragnarok , which has quite a different and more irreverent tone from previous instalments, and hits theatres in November.

‘Something different’

“I’ve played this character five times,” Chris Hemsworth told the audience.

“Me, personally, I got a little bored and thought we’ve got to try something a little different ... Push the envelope, take it to another level.”

So, they cut his hair, take his hammer away and pit him against Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett. When Blanchett’s Hela, the goddess of death, invades Asgard, Thor finds himself on the run and under the control of Goldblum’s Grandmaster on Sakaar where he is pitted against the Hulk in a Gladiator tournament. In this film, the Hulk refuses to turn back into Bruce Banner, but he is learning to speak, albeit slowly.

“He has the vocabulary of a two year old,” Mark Ruffalo said.

Marvel also unveiled the Avengers: Infinity War footage that the studio had previously shown to audiences at the Disney fan convention, D23, and made a few announcements regarding upcoming films.

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