'Black Panther' Chadwick Boseman is ready to make screen history

Bryan Alexander | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Chadwick Boseman: What happened at the 'Black Panther' premiere party? Chadwick Boseman, star of the new Marvel superhero movie 'Black Panther,' tells USA TODAY's Bryan Alexander about his favorite memories from the premiere party.

LOS ANGELES – Chadwick Boseman has done his share of portraying iconic African Americans onscreen.

In 2013's 42, Boseman starred as Jackie Robinson, the player who broke baseball's color barrier, followed by roles as pioneering musician James Brown in 2014's Get On Up and the first black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, in 2017's Marshall.

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But Boseman acknowledges that he's awed by the history he's about to make in Black Panther (in theaters Thursday night), exploding into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the most high-profile black movie superhero to date.

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"I hesitate to say this is bigger — those are real historical figures and moments," says Boseman, 41, searching for the right words the morning after the movie's world premiere. "But what this is, it’s a cultural moment that is happening right now. We’re not remembering breaking the color barrier or how funk was created. We’re living this."

Boseman has been living this since his momentous casting in 2014, while in Zurich to promote Get On Up. The actor had just installed international calling on his phone that morning to keep in touch with family, but stepped off the premiere red carpet into a waiting car to take the mysterious Marvel conference call.

He talked quietly and in coded terms so the driver couldn't overhear as they coasted around the block. As fans knocked on the window seeking his autograph — "It was crazy," Boseman says — Marvel president Kevin Feige offered him a role in Captain America: Civil War.

"It was like, 'There’s this character we think you’d want to play. We want to bring him into our cinematic universe and (he'll) have his own standalone,' " says Boseman, laughing as he remembers how his brain reeled. "I said, 'If it's the character I think it is, then sure.' I couldn't say Black Panther and they never said the words."

Boseman's African prince T'Challa went from top-secret casting ("I didn't even tell my family") to worldwide introduction at a 2014 Marvel event and a memorable first appearance in 2016's Civil War.

The star passed on that premiere. "It was so big, and I just wasn't ready," he says.

But he was ready to step up for the solo Black Panther, where the focus would be on fully introducing his prince-turned-king of the technologically advanced African country Wakanda.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler says he was initially "a little worried" about inheriting his leading man from the previous film.

"But I met him and found him regal, poised and wise beyond his years. It's perfect casting," says Coogler. "And playing those weighty, revered characters in the past, that helps the performance."

Shooting the Wakanda cliff scenes where T’Challa fights challengers for the throne, Boseman felt unrelenting energy from the hundreds of extras on the Atlanta set. It went beyond acting, especially when T’Challa was crowned.

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"That was a difficult shoot, they were on those rocks for hours," says Boseman. "But they were committed. They knew they were watching this ritual, a rite of passage turning into a coronation."

He felt that same energy stepping out from behind the curtain at the Panther premiere to join Coogler and his co-stars onstage. Boseman predicts T'Challa's explosive social impact will be fully felt when Black Panther hits the world's screens — and when he reprises the role in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4.

"This experience is an opening for people’s consciousness. Their boundaries should be shaken and moved," says Boseman. "There’s a hero here that I hope people grow to love."