Winston Duke was a stand out in Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther. Since then, audiences have been wanting more M’Baku. While we saw a glimpse of him in Endgame, Duke stated that he had filmed scenes in Avengers: Endgame that didn’t make the final cut. Duke expressed this in a recent interview, where he spoke about his new Netflix venture with Mark Wahlberg called Spenser Confidential.
Did you shoot your Avengers: Endgame battle moments with most of the cast? Or, did you shoot by yourself on a green screen stage, allowing the visual effects artists to composite you alongside everyone else?
I shot with everyone. The raw footage was just so long with everyone that my stuff didn’t make it in. I filmed so much fighting for it, and I was really bummed to not see any of it in the movie. (Laughs.) I did so many fighting scenes in Endgame during that final battle where they’re trying to keep the gauntlet away from Thanos. It was really cool. Marvel knows what they’re doing, and it all leads to the best product. So, I am happy; I was just very disappointed that nobody got to see all the stuff I was doing.
Duke was then asked about Black Panther 2 and he expressed his trust in Marvel for M’Baku’s future:
While I’m not asking for specifics, has Ryan (Coogler) given you some idea of where M’Baku is headed in the second Black Panther?
Not a glimpse. We’re just waiting to see where it goes. I’ve seen nothing, I’ve heard nothing, I haven’t been told a thing. I just trust that they’re going to invest in M’Baku and tell a really bold story.
The interviewer at THR then asked about Killmonger and what would have happened if he would have approached M’Baku to team up before taking on T’Challa’s stance as the leader of Wakanda:
Since M’Baku and T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) were likely at odds long before they fought for the crown, what do you think would’ve happened if Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) first sought out an alliance with M’Baku in order to exploit M’Baku’s rivalry with T’Challa? Would M’Baku have shut him down as soon as he found out about Killmonger’s plans to distribute weapons?
I think he would’ve shut him down immediately. M’Baku is the ultimate conservative of Wakanda. He believes in closed borders; he doesn’t believe in outsiders. He believes that Wakanda should be for Wakandans. He’s that hyper-conservative minority. Any alliance with any outside party wouldn’t work with him. At the core of his being — at least how we met him — he’s a guy of integrity. I don’t think he would want to take over the throne in any insidious way. If M’Baku was gonna do that, I think he would’ve accepted the heart-shaped herb when they brought it to him and not revealed T’Challa’s frozen body. I think he would’ve just taken it for himself, but he demonstrated great conviction in turning it down and agreeing to show up to help change the day and change the tide of that battle. That ensured that Wakanda was safe, and he stayed on the moral high ground. I think M’Baku is a lot more approachable than people give him credit for.
No matter what, we want more M’Baku and hopefully, we’ll see plenty of Duke in Black Panther 2.
Source: THR
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