What Chadwick Boseman and Lupita Nyong'o Learned About Wakanda

The following article contains major spoilers for Black Panther.

Chadwick Boseman knows what many viewers have been thinking as they watch Black Panther—that maybe (Michael B. Jordan), the film’s ostensible villain, isn’t such a villain after all. That maybe Killmonger’s stated aim, to use the powerful technology and weaponry of the secluded African nation of Wakanda to liberate black people all over the world, is worth taking seriously. It’s an argument that Boseman himself wrestled with while making the movie, one he weaved into his performance as T’Challa, the titular hero and king of Wakanda who opposes his cousin Killmonger and eventually kills him in single combat.