Patriot Almost Made His MCU Debut in 'Black Panther'

Black Panther is still a week away and we are still getting quite a lot of interesting tidbits from the film’s production. Not too long ago we found out that to keep Wakanda’s portrayal from Black Panther consistent throughout the MCU, the production team was heavily involved in the production of Avengers: Infinity War. And we now know that director Ryan Coogler also had one more famous African-American character in mind while writing the film. At some point in time, we could have seen the Patriot a.k.a. Elijah Bradley make an appearance in the film.

Crazy enough, for comic book fans, we toyed with the character Patriot for a little bit. Early on we were interested to get our hands on him, Joe [Robert Cole] and I, but that ended up going away so we could focus on Wakanda a little more. The ones that you see were kind of always there. M’Baku, Killmonger, T’Challa, Nakia, Okoye, Shuri, Ramonda, Klaue, Everett Ross… they were always in every draft. So we had to make sure that they all had arcs, and it had something to do with that.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans might wonder if there is a connection between Bradley and that show’s version of the Patriot, Jeffrey Mace. They may share a similar superhero name, Bradley was a member of the Young Avengers in the comics. While his grandfather was given a new version of the super soldier serum, he did not have any powers so he used Mutant Groth Hormone pills to artificially give him superhuman abilities. At one point in time, he does get actual powers as a result of a blood transfusion from his grandfather. He would make quite an interesting addition to the MCU but it makes sense that Coogler wanted to keep the focus on Wakanda. It already is such a diverse location with many new characters, it would be a waste to just throw Bradley into the mix. Hopefully, we do get a chance to see him make his MCU debut alongside other Young Avenger members.

What are your thoughts on Patriot almost making his MCU debut in Black Panther?

Source: CinemaBlend