Black Panther was a groundbreaking, incredible movie which not only massively exceeded expectations at the box office (especially for a character previously perceived to be "B-List"), but also just became the first superhero movie to be nominated for the "Best Picture" Oscar.
During a recent interview, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was asked about his favourite scene in Black Panther and it probably won't surprise you that he chose Erik Killmonger's emotional death.
"That amazing line, that he [Coogler] and his co-writer, Joe Robert Cole, wrote for Killmonger as he lay dying outside the vibranium mines looking over Wakanda. T'Challa says, 'I can try to heal you,' and he says, 'Why, so you can lock me up? Just bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped ships, 'cause they knew death was better than bondage.' That was in the first draft. It was one of the best lines we ever read. We said, 'There are going to be a lot of revisions, but don't touch that line.' And Ryan said, 'That's the line I thought you'd tell me to cut.' And we said, 'On the contrary, keep it and build more of the movie around it.'"
It's interesting that director Ryan Coogler assumed this was a line which would ultimately be cut, but it's not hard to see why given the meaning behind it. Still, you have to give Feige credit for realising how important it was and his insistence that the filmmaker make it a vital part of the story.
Feige being such a fan of the way Killmonger died may also go some way in debunking those theories that the villain will be somehow resurrected for the planned Black Panther sequel.
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