A new report from Oakland’s East Bay Times reveals an interesting development about Marvel‘s upcoming Black Panther movie, as the outlet reveals the production has secured the rights to a 1990s-era model of one of the area’s public transit buses for a scene set in T’Challa’s past. They go on to report that the scene will show off the young hero’s American education at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley.
Part of the character’s origin in the comic books is him leaving his home of Wakanda to attend the best schools in America and the UK, having graduated from Oxford University with a Ph.D. in Physics, though it seems his schooling in the film will be more of a fun Easter egg as it’s the alma mater of director Ryan Coogler.
Chadwick Boseman is set to star as the title hero in the film alongside Michael B. Jordan (Creed, Fruitvale Station), who will play Erik Killmonger (a villain in the source material), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave, Star Wars: The Force Awakens) as Nakia (a former member of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje, now an agent of Killmonger), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) as elder statesman Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario, Get Out) as T’Challa’s confidant W’Kabi, Florence Kasumba (Captain America: Civil War) reprising her role as Ayo, Winston Duke as M’Baku, aka the villain Man-Ape, Danai Gurira (The Walking Dead) as Okoye (a member of the Dora Milaje, the wives-in-training for the King of Wakanda), Letitia Wright (Ready Player One), Sterling K. Brown (The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story, This is Us) as N’Jobu, a figure from T’Challa’s past; and Angela Bassett (What’s Love Got to Do With It, Olympus Has Fallen) as Ramonda, mother of T’Challa.
With a script by Joe Robert Cole and Ryan Coogler, the latter will direct the Kevin Feige-produced film which begins shooting in January in Atlanta, Georgia. The film will be released in theaters on February 16, 2018.
If you’d like to know more about Black Panther, be sure to check out our previously-published Origins & Evolutions feature on T’Challa by clicking here!
