'Black Panther' Post-Credits Scene Was Originally Much Longer
If you crave longer post-credits scenes in your Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, you almost got your wish with Black Panther. In a new interview, an Avengers star reveals that one Black Panther post-credits scene was originally much longer than what ended up in the final film.
As is always the case when we're discussing post-credits scenes, beware of spoilers. If you haven't seen Black Panther yet (although you probably have, since it made 10 zillion dollars at the box office), turn back now!
Black Panther technically had two post-credits scenes, but the one we're focusing on here involves Sebastian Stan's character Bucky, who previously went by the scary nickname The Winter Solider but now has the more friendly-sounding monicker, White Wolf.
In the post-credits scene in question, we see Bucky in Wakanda, which is a callback to a scene in Captain America: Civil War. In that film, Bucky was put into a cryosleep chamber, with T'Challa promising to help cure Bucky's Winter Soldier brainwashing. The Black Panther post-credits scene reveals that T'Challa's sister Shuri has helped Bucky, and now he's a changed man. It's a pretty good scene, all things considered, but according to Sebastian Stan, it could've been even better. During a panel at Wizard World Portland (via CinemaBlend), Stan revealed the scene was originally much longer:
"There was something really actually funny about that scene. It's definitely better the way it is now, I think. But that scene was at least 8 more minutes long than what we saw. And it was like a more inquisitive Bucky. He was kind of really going, 'Why do they call it these?' And [Shuri] was telling him a little about it, and they kind of walk in a direction, and then he walked over and started hanging out with elders and playing with the kids, but you don't see that."
A post-credits scene running for more than eight minutes is a bit much, so I can understand why director Ryan Coogler cut this down a bit. The scene in the final film is a bit more direct and to the point, whereas the scene as Stan describes it here allows more room for character growth. Normally, I'd say we might see the deleted parts of this scene on the upcoming Blu-ray release, but the deleted scenes listed on that release indicate otherwise:
In other words, we probably won't ever get to see these deleted minutes. Unless they show up somewhere in Avengers: Infinity War, which hits theaters on April 27, 2018.