Chadwick Boseman Unmasks Marvel's Most Mysterious New Character, Black Panther

Captain America: Civil War is going to be a groundbreaking Marvel film for a lot of reasons — it'll be the first time Avengers are pitted against Avengers as protagonists and antagonists, but it's also the first time we'll meet the Marvel character Black Panther. Aside from the obvious first that this is modern Marvel's first black superhero, it's also the first time an Avenger will make his debut in another Avengers movie before getting his own planned standalone movie. Got that? It's better if you just read what star Chadwick Boseman, best known for biopics 42 and Get on Up, told me and a group of reporters when we visited the Civil War set last Summer. Read on for how much we'll learn about the new character in this Marvel sequel!

Chadwick Boseman: I'm just kind of thrown into the middle. It's definitely not an origin story, no.

CB: You meet me as the Prince of Wakanda. You meet me as a politician/monarch, not as a superhero.

CB: It's not necessarily a transformation. I am just thrown into the mix. To answer your question, yes, I am already a Black Panther — a Black Panther, yeah.

CB: No. Sorry. I know you thought you were because of Age of Ultron, but . . . [laughs] It's not happening.

CB: Wakanda is known to the world, yes. [Laughs]

CB: Yeah, there's a Wakandan accent.

CB: It's hot. It's blazing hot. Listen, it's so hot. I've never been that hot before in my life, seriously.

CB: I can't tell you that. [Laughs] I can't tell you that because I don't want you picturing how it happens. It's not cute.

CB: You know what, I don't think there's any way for anybody to prepare you for this. I just think people have been very gracious in welcoming me on set, and even off set. What was more important was, you know, Chris [Evans] has been very cool in terms of inviting me to stuff and giving me a hard time in the best way. His sense of humor is great. Robert Downey has been great as well, [Anthony] Mackie — everybody. Everybody's been cool. Don Cheadle. I've seen a lot of them separate from being here, so it didn't feel like when I got here it was like all of a sudden meeting them for the first time.

CB: That he's fictional. [Laughs] That's the main thing. I don't have to — not that I didn't like doing this. I loved interacting with the family members, the Brown family members, the Robinson family members. But in this case, I don't have to go talk to the Queen of Wakanda.

CB: No, I was not totally familiar. I think what you try to do is just get your hands on every single comic book you can find that has the character in it, or him being mentioned or anything. I've just tried to read them all — not like it's really work. It is work — don't get me wrong — it is work, but it's just sort of reading them like a kid, you know? Because when you just read it like it's work, you're just trying to get through it. So I think it's putting yourself in that mind frame to go through the mythology in a fun way. And then, also, I've gone to South Africa, gone to some places, to see some things that I think relate to the character, and let those things sort of fuel your workouts, fuel your sessions when you work on the part.

CB: I didn't, I didn't. I wasn't a comic book geek as a kid. I read some, but it was just like, "Oh, I have this comic book here." It wasn't like I was collecting them. I didn't really collect much of anything — baseball cards, nothing. I had some of them too, but I wasn't a collector. But this has been a much more aggressive intake of that material. It is interesting too because it's different than watching the films, different than reading a novel or anything else. I think it helps you a lot as a filmmaker because the exposition and things that happen in a film are done much differently than they are in a comic book, but some things do coincide. So I think it helps you as an artist.

CB: I can't say, if you're talking about his abilities. He's not the strongest, you know what I'm saying? He's not necessarily the fastest, but he's strong and he's fast. He has a wit, a wisdom, and a plan — an overarching plan — that a lot of times you don't necessarily see. So it's his strategy during a fight or during a battle. As far as the comic book goes, I think that's different. As far as this movie, you know, this is an introduction to the character.

CB: I see a fair share, I see a fair share . . . I think the difference in him is that he's a ruler of a country. That's the difference. I wouldn't even call him a superhero. In the mythology of the country, he's not a superhero. He's a warrior, and it's part of their tradition. It's not like he's like, "Who is that masked guy that's doing this stuff?" Everybody knows it's him, and they expect that it's him, and they pray to God, or even him in some cases, that he would do the things that he's doing. Which is much different than most of the superheroes in which you don't know their identity and you don't know when they might show up. There's an expectation that's much different. So that's the main difference.

CB: Well, just in a basic way. You're seeing him in the larger scheme of things, like fighting outside of his country. So it will definitely affect what you see later. That's all I can say. [Laughs]

CB: Like if I was doing my own comedy show on HBO or something, in most cases I would go do stand-up at The Comedy Store in LA or some local spot, and I would gear up to do that. So when you see Thor, you know, "Who's going to be Thor?" that's a rough way to do it. Particularly, in this case, a lot of people don't know who Black Panther is. So I think they're really smart to introduce him and let people know, "Oh, yeah, this guy was one of the major comic book characters. He was part of the Avengers." That history is important for people to get before you have a standalone movie. So I think it's the best way to do it, absolutely.

CB: I don't think you can assume anything, because there's also such a thing as a prequel also. I think anything is possible.