What Happened to Killmonger’s Mother in ‘Black Panther’ Will Make You Cry

Director Ryan Coogler explains why Michael B. Jordan’s character grew up without a mom

killmonger black panther michael b jordan soul stone
Marvel Studios

(If you haven’t seen “Black Panther” by now, you already know spoilers are ahead.)

Erik “Killmonger” Stevens’ story in “Black Panther” just became even more tragic.

The movie’s villain, played by Michael B. Jordan, lost his father N’Jobu (Sterling K. Brown) at the hands of Wakanda’s king T’Chaka (John Kani). But it turns out that he lost his mother, too.

In the recently released Blu-Ray commentary for the movie, director Ryan Coogler shed some light on what N’Jobu and young Zuri (Denzel Whitaker) were up to in the movie’s opening scene.

“The idea was when you see those guys talking over the paperwork in the beginning of the film, they’re talking about a way to break her out of jail,” Coogler said. “The idea was they never got her out, and she passed away in prison, so Killmonger didn’t come up with a mom either.”

Not gonna cry. Nope. **sniff**

N’Jobu’s death is what leads Killmonger to seek revenge on Wakanda, and when T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) finds out that his father killed his uncle, it’s one of the most shocking reveals of the movie.

N’Jobu’s vision for using Wakandan tech to help the outside world eventually becomes realized, even though his son dies in the end, because Black Panther decides to help the outside world at the end of the movie — and we get to see exactly how in “Avengers: Infinity War.” Sorry though, Okoye (Danai Gurira): it’s not by building a Starbucks.

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