Add Forest Whitaker, Daniel Kaluuya and Florence Kasumba to the growing cast of “Marvel’s Black Panther” which Ryan Coogler is directing from a script he’s co-writing with Joe Robert Cole.

Whitaker has signed up to play Zuri, an elder Wakandan statesman; Kasumba will reprise her “Captain America: Civil War” role as Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje. And Kaluuya will play W’Kabi, a T’Challa confidant.




The trio join a “Black Panther” cast that includes Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, the king of Wakanda and holder of the Black Panther mantle; Michael B. Jordan, who will play Erik Killmonger (a Black Panther nemesis); Lupita Nyong’o, taking the role of Nakia; and Danai Gurira as Okoye. Both Nakia and Okoye are of the Wakandan Dora Milaje, the “Adored Ones” and personal bodyguards of the Black Panther, recruited from every tribe of Wakanda. Chosen from rival tribes, their presences maintain a balance of power preventing civil war.

Also Winston Duke, who also recently joined the film’s cast, will play another villain for Black Panther to take on – M’Baku, described as “one of Wakanda’s most powerful warriors and one of T’Challa’s biggest rivals.”

Filming will begin in early 2017, for an early 2018 release.