Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) had to be the first person to return from the dead in Avengers: Endgame, and directors Joe and Anthony Russo explain why. Fresh off his smash hit solo outing directed by Ryan Coogler, T’Challa was among the unfortunate half of the universe affected by Thanos’ (Josh Brolin ) snap in Avengers: Infinity War. Fans always knew that he’d return, but according to the filmmakers, he needed to be at the forefront of all the dead heroes coming back to help the remaining Avengers with the fight against the Mad Titan.

Debuting in Captain America: Civil War, the King of Wakanda was quickly a hit with fans. His unique origins, coupled with his fascinating homeworld became the main selling points of his own solo film, but Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole also crafted a socially and culturally-relevant narrative that resonated with a lot of people. Black Panther squashed long-existing industry myths about people of color-led films not performing well at the box office, and the movie was well-loved across the board. It made sense for T’Challa to be the first person out of the portal considering his current popularity, but the decision, as the Endgame directors explain, stemmed from the narrative.

The Russos recently hosted a Q&A on Reddit (via CBR) and revealed that it was deliberate on their part to have T’Challa, Okoye (Danai Gurira) and Shuri (Letitia Wright) return first via Doctor Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) portals in Endgame. Joe explained that while they always wanted Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) to be the first person to reach out to Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Panther was the first person to emerge considering that Infinity War’s battle was set in Wakanda.

One of the few recurring criticisms of Infinity War was that it didn’t have enough of Black Panther and Wakanda. Endgame was fully devoid of the technologically-advanced nation bar the brief appearance by Okoye to provide Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) some update. While it would’ve been great to see how the kingdom was doing considering that their King and his princess sister were both affected by The Decimation, the story called to focus on the Avengers, particularly its core six members. So Avengers 4 was mainly set in their upstate HQ with the usual players working together to crack the Time Heist.

“We spent a lot of time in the edit room playing around with the sequencing of the portals. We probably didn’t lock that section of the movie until about a month before the film was in theaters. We always wanted Sam [Wilson] to be the first one to communicate with Cap via his comm and Sam was last in Wakanda, so logically the first portal that would open would the Wakandan portal. And the first person that would logically walk through a portal from Wakanda would be the king himself, bringing his army once again to the defense of Cap and the world.”

Aside from the fact that it made sense narratively, Captain America seeing Black Panther’s portal with a knowing look on his face as if saying “help’s here” can be indicative of MCU’s current transition phase. Avengers: Endgame was the end of the road for a few of the franchise’s principal characters, and a new crop of heroes will take over their vacated spots which obviously includes T’Challa, as well as Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland). These second-generation heroes will be the next face of the universe now that the few of the original Avengers are gone.

More: Hulk Was Always Going to Be The Avenger Who Undid The Thanos Snap

Source: Joe and Anthony Russo (via CBR)

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