Intense Deleted Scene From BLACK PANTHER Features Okoye and W'Kabi Arguing Over The Wakanda Leadership

The first deleted scene from Marvel's Black Panther has been released by director Ryan Coogler and it's a pretty intense one that features some powerful performances by Danai Gurira and Daniel Kaluuya.

The scene involves Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje, and her husband W'Kabi, leader of the border tribe of Wakanda as they disagree over who they support as the leader Wakanda after Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) beat T'Chala (Chadwick Boseman) in the battle for leadership and where Wakanda would go after his death. It's explained by USA Today:

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.

Coogler loves the scene but explains that they had to cut it because it didn't work inside the confines of the film. When talking about it with Empire, producer Nate Moore said:

"Unfortunately, it occurred at a point in the movie where audiences just wanted to get to the resolution and so it slowed down a part of the movie and we were afraid audiences were checking out. We were also afraid if we took it out we’re going to ruin this movie—‘guys we’re going to ruin this movie; let’s not take it out.’ We didn’t take it out for three or four screenings and we finally took it out and I think Ryan and I were probably the last men on that beach saying don’t take it out."

Watch the clip below and Black Panther will be released digitally on May 8th and on Blu-ray and DVD on May 15th.