To prepare for his role, Michael B. Jordan kept to himself while he was on set, reasoning that his character Killmonger is distant and in conflict with the other characters.
Three out of every five people in Wakanda go barefoot, a deliberate decision by the costuming department.
Co-stars Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke, who play adversaries Nakia and M'Baku, were classmates at Yale together. They saw The Avengers (2012) together when it released, and were so awestruck by it they said hoped to get a chance to star in a similar film one day.
Director Ryan Coogler compared the Wakanda vibranium mines to the real-life situation of the Congo mines, where the valuable mineral coltan (used in manufacturing digital products, found only in the Congo region) is being mined.
The fighting in this film is based on African martial arts. The filmmakers also cited the action scenes in Creed (2015) and the Kingsman films as an influence on the style.
Wakanda was mentioned as a location on a S.H.I.E.L.D. monitor in Iron Man 2 (2010). The location pinpoints the country as being situated at Lake Turkana, on the borders of Kenya and Ethopia. The region in real life is special for holding great mineral deposits (properties similar to Wakanda).
John Kani and his son Atandwa Kani play T'Chaka in his old age and youth, respectively.
Gorilla City, home to Man-Ape's Jabari Tribe, was originally set in a rain forest. Ryan Coogler felt that was too obvious, and suggested that it move to a snow-covered mountain.
The younger version of Forest Whitaker's character, Zuri, is played by Denzel Whitaker. Although they share the same surname, they are not father and son, nor are they related. They both also appeared in The Great Debaters (2007) (starring Denzel Washington, whom Denzel Whittaker was named after) where funnily enough, they played father and son. Forest Whitaker has a son called Ocean Whitaker who was born in the same year as Denzel Whitaker.
The Black Panther was created in July 1966, two months before the founding of the Black Panther Party. Many people mistakenly assumed the name referred to the Party, so the character was renamed the Black Leopard. However, neither the readers nor the creators cared for that title, and it didn't last long.
The filmmakers created a unique culture for each of the Wakandan tribes, to get a sense of the country being a mix of different tribes:
the Golden Tribe (the royal tribe) uses a motif of black and purple, and a continental symbol for the sun found throughout Africa.
the Border Tribe was inspired by Lesotho architecture/language, and uses a motif of blue and wood.
the River Tribe uses a motif of green and shells.
the Merchant Tribe was inspired by Nigerian architecture and language.
the Jabari Tribe wears fur and wood to represent their naturalism. They also speak in a Yoruba dialect of West Africa, in contrast to the Wakandans having the Xhosa dialect of South Africa, to represent their outsider status.
Ryan Coogler describe the film's central theme as responsibility and identity: "What do the powerful owe those in need? It separates the good-guys from the villains. What value is strength unless you're using it to help someone? Wakanda pretends to be just another struggling African country, but some of its neighbors are struggling for real. If Wakandans don't stand up for themselves, who will? But if they stand only for themselves, then who are they?"
This was the eighteenth film released by Marvel Studios for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The museum that appears in the early part of the movie, that is supposed to be in Britain, is actually the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia.
In the 2015 London production of the 2009 play Eclipsed, Letitia Wright (Shuri) played the lead role (known only as "The Girl"). In 2016, when a production of the play opened on Broadway, "The Girl" was played by Lupita Nyong'o (Nakia). Eclipsed was written by Danai Gurira (Okoye).
Michael B. Jordan initially auditioned for the role of Sam Wilson/The Falcon back in 2013 before being cast in this film three years later.
The ancestral plane is known in the comics as the DJalia (named for the djali, a West African ancestral historian), and is formed from the memories of Wakandan citizens.
Killmonger wears a golden version of T'Challa's Black Panther suit, which makes him resemble a leopard. In the comics, he owned a leopard named Preyy.
This film marked chapter six of phase three in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
This film, about an African superhero, releases in Black History Month (February), when African culture is celebrated across the US, Canada and UK.