Though both Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman have been rumoured as part of the film for a while now – and Freeman has been spotted on the set – Marvel's production announcement for Black Panther confirms that the two actors will indeed show up on screen.
They're reprising characters we met in Avengers: Age Of Ultron (Serkis' injured arms dealer Ulysses Klaue) and Captain America: Civil War (Freeman's government type Everett K. Ross) for the new movie. And now we have a basic plot synopsis for the movie, which Ryan Coogler has already started shooting. Ready? Here we go... "Black Panther follows T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) who, after the events of Captain America: Civil War, returns home to the isolated, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to take his place as King. However, when an old enemy reappears on the radar, T’Challa’s mettle as King and Black Panther is tested when he is drawn into a conflict that puts the entire fate of Wakanda and the world at risk." So now you know.
Coogler's cast also includes regular collaborator Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Florence Kasuma and Sterling K. Brown. With a script the director wrote alongside Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther is headed our way on 9 February next year before its US launch on 16 February.