Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman’s character, T’Challa, is not inclined to trust other nations in “Black Panther.” In this photo, the actor poses backstage during the 47th NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, California on Feb. 5, 2016. Reuters/Danny Moloshok

It’s not easy being a king, and this is exactly what T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman, also known as the Black Panther, has to deal with in his upcoming standalone Marvel film, “Black Panther.”

Boseman told Entertainment Weekly that T’Challa saw his father, T’Chaka, die while trying to reach out to other nations in “Captain America: Civil War.” Due to this, T’Challa himself will be wary of other people.

“That hasn’t traditionally been their attitude towards the rest of the world. [T’Chaka] wanted to step out of those boundaries,” Boseman explained. “It’s a like a new leader taking power and trying to figure out if he should do it the older traditional way. You would think the younger man would want to do something different than the father, but the father – for a reason that I don’t want to say – was thinking ahead and beyond those boundaries.”

READ: Will ‘Black Panther’ feature Marvel’s first openly gay characters?

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige added that Wakanda is a really strong and rich nation which does not need help from the rest of the world. However, the “Black Panther” film will see the nation and its people changing their attitude about the outside world. “Part of the story is about the isolationist state of Wakanda coming to terms with the modern day,” he said. “There are other people [in the story] who say, ‘No, we shouldn’t do that.’ You get into conversations about refugees. You get into conversations about, ‘Should we help the people on the other side of that border, because they need help and we could help them …. but it would potentially endanger us.’”

Boseman is really thrilled with the film because it was a chance for him to live out a childhood dream. “We’ve all played superheroes before,” he told the South China Morning Post. “What you were doing as a kid, the fun of it was if you actually had a suit, you would use it, and you got up and you did the movements. You took on the voice. You took on all of it. So it's not really different here. It’s just bigger.”

Aside from Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Michael B. Jordan, Forest Whitaker, and Danai Guria also star in the film.

“Black Panther,” which is directed by Ryan Coogler, is slated for release on Feb. 16, 2018.

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