Maybe it’s the warm glow of the disarmingly charming “Spider-Man Homecoming,” but we’re feeling pretty good about the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ok, so it might be tough to get truly enthusiastic about “Ant-Man & The Wasp” at this point, but otherwise we’ve got Taika Waititi’s promising-looking “Thor: Ragnarok,” Brie Larson stepping into the shoes of “Captain Marvel,” and the “Infinity War” mash-up uniting all your favorite heroes under the reliable eye of the Russo Brothers all on the way
But most promising of all is “Black Panther,” the solo adventure of the seminal hero who debuted in last year’s “Captain America: Civil War.” It’s exciting because it’s the first superhero of color to headline his own MCU movie, but it’s doubly so because the man in charge is Ryan Coogler, the bright young thing behind “Fruitvale Station” and “Creed,” and who looks to be putting his own stamp on the Marvel mega-franchise in a way that few filmmakers have been able to do.
READ MORE: Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’ Unleashes The Claws In First Trailer
The recent teaser trailer felt like a real breath of fresh air, and while new footage will likely arrive at Comic-Con in ten days time, we’ve got some new looks at the movie courtesy of EW’s latest issue, which features the movie on its cover ahead of the San-Diego nerd mecca celebration, and some of the cast and crew have been spilling the beans on the movie too.
Intriguingly, in the magazine’s feature, executive producer Nate Moore says “What I think we landed on was a sort of cross between James Bond and ‘The Godfather.’ A big operatic family drama centered on a world of international espionage. So hopefully we’re getting the best of both worlds.” That sounds pretty awesome, especially in the colorful world that Coogler and his team seem to have set up.
The family in question can be seen in the portrait above, with Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, Angela Bassett’s Ramonda, Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia (described as “a war dog… an undercover spy” by the Oscar-winning actress), Letitia Wright’s Shuri, who serves as a sort of gadget-creating Q figure by her big brother, Danai Gurira’s Okoye, Forest Whitaker’s shaman Zuri, Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi and Michael B. Jordan’s villain Erik Killmonger, a dissident teamed with Ulysses Klaue (a returning Andy Serkis) to attempt to overthrow T’Challa.
A bunch more images below, and you can find out more about the movie at EW. It opens on February 16th, 2018, and we quite honestly can’t wait. 