Black Panther Will Pick Up Straight After Civil War

The issue of how Marvel and Ryan Coogler would deal with the fall-out of Captain America: Civil War and the presence of Bucky in Wakanda was always going to be a big one. Would they simply keep him on ice and avoid mentioning the events of Civil War too much in order to set up his own story and let the character breathe a bit more?

According to the co-writer, it seems that the events of Civil War will play some part in Black Panther. Joe Robert Cole - who also worked on the excellent The People Vs OJ Simpson - told Slashfilm, that T'Challa's story will begin with dealing with the fall-out from the first Phase 3 movie:

“First, I think Chadwick did a phenomenal job in Civil War in setting the tone for him being a king, for the nobility. At the end, I thought his turn was fantastic and how he rose above his own vengeance. I think that was a great introduction to him. Our standalone movie will begin shortly after Civil War ends. So we’ll be able to see him mourning and him starting to take command as king of his own nation. Lots of things are going to occur within regards to that”.

So will Bucky's presence be a key to the story? Could he be used as a banner for Erik Killmonger to rally support to undermine T'Challa's fledgling leadership? It does seem like a great way to tie it to the wider MCU. Cole also says that the rise of Wakanda will "affect the MCU moving forward", so that would make sense.

Cole was actually also initially set to write The Inhumans, but with that temporarily on hiatus (or whatever its status currently is), he's not entirely certain what is happening: “I don’t know if Inhumans is on the slate”. Who does, mate? Who does.