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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
As far as I understand, both Nakia and Okoye are members of the Dora Milaje. In the comics, Nakia turned villain because T'Challa rejected her, which they will hopefully change into something less cringeworthy. But that's probably where the love interest idea came from.
Lupita Nyong'o explained in an interview that T'Challa will face villains that team up against him from the inside and the outside, so I don't think Klaw is off the table. M'Baku might have an Early-Bird Cameo, or he might be another ally for Killmonger against T'Challa. And yes, for the love of gods, keep the whole gorilla business away from him as far as possible.
Killmonger and Man-Ape have pretty decent claims to the arch-nemesis position too - and perhaps if the movie is going to be primarily set in Wakanda itself they would be more logical rivals as T'Challa goes about establishing himself as the new King. Klaue may well feature as a more minor villain in his gun-smuggler guise and ends up with his sonic powers in time for the sequel.
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."I think the main reason to use Klaw would be that he is already established as somebody who steals vibranium from Wakanda - and he could be a good partner for someone who wants to destabilize T'Challa politically, even if that person would otherwise loathe to work with him. Killmonger has quite a history with Klaw in the comics, if they were to team up against T'Challa, it could make for interesting characterization for Killmonger (i.e. how far would he go to get rid of T'Challa to ally with someone like that).
1) Apparently Joss Whedon wrote Klaw into AOU without knowing a Black Panther movie was going to be greenlit soon, so for all we know there were never any plans for that. 2) As I mentioned yesterday, they kinda screwed up the whole "arch nemesis" bit when they had Baron Zemo murder T'Challa's father in Civil War. They essentially took away the thing that actually qualified Klaw to be T'Challa's nemesis.
As pretty much everyone already assumed
, the Eye of Agamotto is confirmed to be an Infinity Stone.
Feige says they want to do more varied villains moving forward
.
I don't think killing Important Person is the only way to archnemesis.
Forever liveblogging the Avengers
That's a good start, isn't it? Kingpin is Daredevil's archenemy, and he is simply after hell's kitchen. Green Goblin is Peter's archenemy and he...I actually don't know what the origin of this relationship is other than Peter constantly ruining his plans. Which is more or less the reason for the Lex Luther being Superman's archenemy, too.
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But vibranium is literally the element that empowered Wakanda to be technologically advanced and wealthy, and thus fend off colonialization attempts. As far as we know, the Klaues are the only ones who not only attempted to steal vibranium but succeeded, that would already make Klaw a pretty big thorn in T'Challa's side. And since the movie apparently takes place shortly after Civil War according to Ryan Coogler, various people might expect T'Challa to be too inexperienced to lead the country effectively. Someone like Klaw could want to exploit that (much like possible rivals like M'Baku or Killmonger).
edited 29th Sep '16 7:42:38 AM by hollygoolightly
He seemed more like the sleazy type of minor villain who works with the real Big Bad. Sort of a Wormtongue type (or is that just me going Tolkien because of Serkis?).
ETA: his supreme underreaction to getting his arm sliced off was admittedly pretty badass.
edited 29th Sep '16 7:46:10 AM by hollygoolightly
I don't think Marvel's method of filmmaking is conducive to archnemeses in general. An important quality of what makes an archnemesis is that the character recurs. They have a longstanding enmity with the protagonist that lasts through multiple arcs.
The MCU is extremely episodic. Its characters don't have archnemeses. Captain America fought the Red Skull for one movie and then moved on to other stuff. Iron Man fought the Mandarin for one movie and then moved on. Thor fought Loki one time, fought him again with the Avengers, and then Loki became a f*cking protagonist.
Despite its connected nature and devotion to continuity between films, Marvel's movies are still largely independent done-in-one stories. They aren't the kind of multi-film epics that allow for development of an archnemesis relationship.
edited 29th Sep '16 7:46:07 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
That would be my thinking also. Killmonger seems like a much more interesting character, who also would have a connection to Wakanda that goes beyond dollar signs in his eyes.
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HYDRA worked pretty well as a long-time enemy I thought, but their very point was that they were sort of anonymous (admittedly, I never was a great fan of Red Skull, and having fascist ideas itself as the threat instead of a powerful personality is much more timely, anyway. Unfortunately.)
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My guess is that either Klaw is an act 1 villian that Killmonger and M'Baku see as proof that intigrating with the outside world (which T'challa continues to support) is bad news fof Wakanda. Or that he forms an alliance of convenience with Killmonger and/or M'Baku, only for the alliance to inevitability end in one side betraying the other.
...If they go with the latter, I kind of hope Killmonger and Klaw independently enact their plan to turn on the other at basically the same time. Just because it would create a hilariously awkward moment.
Klaw managed to sneak into Wakanda, steal a bunch of Vibranium, and then get out alive (which surprised both Tony and Cap). And he says that it came at "great personal cost." So if someone came to him and said "hey you can stick it to the Wakandans, AND make lots of money in the process" that'd he'd probably be interested. Plus you already have one of BP's biggest enemies in the MCU, confirmed to be alive, so use him I say. In the
Avengers: EMH cartoon, Klaw helps M'Baku take over Wakanda in exchange for M'Baku giving him access to all of Wakanda's Vibranium stores (which M'Baku believed was "corrupting" Wakanda and it's traditions. So they could go that route here as well, only perhaps having Klaw ally with Killmonger instead (since I fully expect him to be the main villain).
As for M'Baku, Marvel films rarely go for villain codenames anyway. Stane and Blonsky aren't called "Iron Monger" or "Abomination," directly (those names are just dropped in other contexts as "cute little references." Red Skull is only called that once offhandedly, the rest of the time he's either called "Schmidt" or "Johann Schmidt." Loki, Ronan, Thanos, Nebula, Killian, Pierce, Ultron, Zemo, etc are all called by their real names. They completely changed The Mandarin to try and avoid any perceived "problematic" elements in his character and, they claim at least, that that also plays a role in their Doctor Strange casting choice, etc.
So I think that he'll just be called "M'Baku" in the film. And as for the costume, well Zemo didn't have his comic book costume (or a costume at all) after all. So M'Baku might not either.
edited 29th Sep '16 9:33:20 AM by Punisher286
Actually... does Marvel have a Gorilla villain? All the ones I can think of are DC (Doom Patrol movie DC, get on it).
On the other hand, there's Mandrill.
But there's... significant problems with him too, ones that unlike Man-Ape can't be easily sidestepped.
edited 29th Sep '16 10:33:45 AM by KnownUnknown

They never actually call T'challa Black Panther in Civil War, right? They just explain that the Black Panther spirit is passed down in the family or something like that. So there is not reason to actually call Ape-man by his villain name. And between a bunch of people who use animal symbols having one which has some sort of gorilla as his protector might come off as less insulting.
I guess in this case we just need to trust Cougar that he knows what he is doing.