Black Bolt Will Never Talk On Marvel's 'Inhumans,' Ever [TCA 2017]

Fans got their first look at Marvel's Inhumans at Comic-Con. While reactions were mixed, Marvel reminds viewers that it is still a work in progress and won't be finished until it runs in IMAX theaters before airing on ABC. On a Television Critics Association panel, the show's cast and creators provided some more information about the show.

Black Bolt (Anson Mount), the king of the Inhumans, does not speak because his voice would destroy everyone. Head of Marvel TV Jeph Loeb was clear that this is not a temporary condition.

"When we first sat down and started talking about the role, we said, very point blank, 'You have no dialogue, and you will never have dialogue," Loeb said. "It's not as though there's a point where there's going to be a secret operation. You're going to have to find a way to communicate with your hands and your eyes and another way."

Mount had spoken about creating a sign language to represent Black Bolt's speech, which is not American Sign Language because Black Bolt has never been to Earth. You can read more about that in our Inhumans panel recap from San Diego Comic-Con last month.

The powers of Karnak (Ken Leung) may have been unclear to some viewers of out of context scenes, too. He has the power to see flaws, and on the show, he plays out every option for the viewer until he finds the course of action that works.

"It's an opportunity for him to be able to see how he would deal with a particular situation and then take it on from there," Loeb said. "I think one of the challenges of what it is that you've seen so far is something that's unfinished, and while I can understand that it may not have been something that you readily understood, it is something that once you've seen the whole finished product, you actually do, and so it's a very good question."

In a television first, Inhumans will play for two weeks in IMAX theaters, utilizing footage filmed with IMAX cameras. However, the IMAX edit is nine minutes shorter so you'll still have to watch on ABC to see everything.

"On September 1st, there will be a 75-minute version of the first two episodes," Loeb said. "Then when the show premieres on ABC on September 29th, it will be the first two episodes in their full length, which is 84 minutes. So there will be footage that you can see on ABC that you won't see in IMAX, and there will be things in IMAX that you'll see that are shot on the IMAX cameras that are simply extraordinary and should be seen on that screen."

Loeb also asserts that, while there are Inhumans like Daisy on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Inhumans is a separate story, at least in that they won't cross paths with Daisy or her group of Inhumans.

"We don't want anyone to think that this is a show that doesn't exist on its own," Loeb said. "It has its own story with characters that you've never seen before in dealing with the royal family.  And the inhumans that are part of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. story are their own story."

Marvel's Inhumans is in theaters September 1 and on ABC on September 29.