Exclusive 'Black Panther' deleted scene shows Okoye and W'Kabi having a marital tiff

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Exclusive: 'Black Panther' deleted scene discusses Wakanda's future "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler introduces an exclusive deleted scene featuring warriors Okoye (Danai Gurira) and W'Kabi (Daniel Kaluuya).

The Marvel movies haven’t given us a whole lot of couples but the superhero hit Black Panther gave us a pair of lovers that felt truly real in the complex relationship between Danai Gurira’s Okoye and Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi.

But did you know that these powerful warriors of Wakanda are actually married? That tidbit is revealed in this exclusive deleted scene from director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (available May 8 on digital HD platforms like iTunes and Amazon) that also delves into the ongoing issue of their high-tech African nation’s place on the world stage.

The nixed sequence takes place after King T’Challa/Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman) was thrown from Warrior Falls to his apparent death in a challenge by villain Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan). In his video intro, Coogler says it was supposed to be a tense scene where the audience would realize Okoye and W’Kabi were husband and wife with divided loyalties.

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Okoya, who heads the all-female fighting force the Dora Milaje, is mad at W’Kabi after he helped Killmonger gain entry into the Tribal Council room, but W’Kabi is equally furious that his friend T’Challa (who ends up being OK) had promised and failed to bring vibranium thief Ulysses Klaue (Andy Serkis) to justice. Instead, Killmonger brought Klaue's dead body, as well as a plan to arm the oppressed all over the world and make Wakanda — long pretending to be a third-world country to protect their vast technological resources from the rest of the globe — a true superpower.

“This is what you would have me leave the Dora for, to bring our children into this world where they become conquerors?” Okoye says. “Yes,” her husband responds. “Our children will be leaders of a truly free world, not just a tiny country where we have to hide everything that makes us great. There will be war and death but in the end it will be beautiful. And Wakanda will stand tall,” W’Kabi says as he embraces Okoye and kisses her forehead.

Coogler points out it was a scene he “was incredibly proud of as a director but didn’t work inside of the confines of our film.” While W’Kabi doesn’t appear in the Battle of Wakanda in Avengers: Infinity War — here’s hoping T’Challa forgave him for the whole Killmonger fiasco — Black Panther fans can check Okoye out there and maybe in next year’s Avengers 4. (Since her final scene in Infinity War is a bit of a downer — spoilers! — we’re pulling for her to get the first Starbucks in Wakanda.)