BLACK PANTHER Will Feature The Villain Nightshade

In fact, she’s already in the trailer.

By Jun. 22, 2017

Here’s something we all missed while celebrating the Black Panther trailer: genius-level scientist Tilda Johnson a.k.a. Deadly Nightshade is in the movie. In fact, she’s fighting alongside Killmonger when he breaks out Ulysses Klaue:

That’s actress/singer Nabiyah Be confirming her role, and while we don’t yet know how big of a part she’ll play (maybe she’ll figure more prominently in the sequel?), her appearance does tell us a little more about the movie and about this version of Killmonger.

Johnson, like Be herself, hails from New York. In the comics, that’s where Killmonger’s family moved after they were banished from Wakanda and it’s likely where the two met (they both grew up in Harlem), keeping at least part of the film’s perspective specifically African American. In fact, the decision to seemingly change T’Challa’s educational background from British to American, or simply to add a stint in America to the mix, seems to speak to that idea. In the comics, he got his PhD at Oxford. Whether or not that’s still the case in the film, a 1990s flashback reportedly shows him during his time at St. Mary’s College High School in Berkley CA, director Ryan Coogler’s alma mater.

The more that comes out about this movie, the more exciting it sounds. Black Panther hits theatres February 16th 2018.

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