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Michael B. Jordan Thinks Killmonger Would Be a Worthy Challenger to Thanos
Michael B. Jordan shares how Black Panther's Erik Killmonger would've fought Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War had he been there. MCU has had a solid year in the villain department with Killmonger and Thanos. The two gave the franchise heroes worthy opponents after a sea of lackluster and under-developed bad guys, but what if they were up against each other?
Since one of the final battles of Infinity War was on Wakandan soil, fans are wondering if things turned out differently if Killmonger remained the king of the nation, and T'Challa wasn't able to reclaim the throne from his cousin. Sadly, people will never find out the answer to this question since Killmonger had long been killed before Thanos made his move on Earth. Still, Jordan weighed in on the matter, and while he doesn't say if him being the reigning monarch of Wakanda would've made any difference, one thing is for sure: he would've had a carefully laid out plan in taking down the Mad Titan.
The A.V. Club caught up with the actor in Los Angeles during his MBJAM charity event in support of Lupus LA where the outlet asked him how he thought Killmonger would've fared against Thanos in Infinity War. Highlighting just how much he understood his Black Panther character, the actor said that he's sure Erik would've had a "well thought out" plan in fighting the supervillain given that he approached any situation with a calculated scheme.
“This is the first I’m hearing of it. I think the one thing about Killmonger is he really plans his attacks, and they’re well thought out. So if he ever stepped in a situation with Thanos, he would feel confident that he had the upper hand—at the very least, he would know he had a shot. So I mean, we already know that Erik’s willing to sacrifice himself for a greater good, so I don’t think he’s ever fearful of losing his life. So I think if he ever stepped in front of Thanos, he’d already have a plan for taking him down.”
Of course, no one knows if having a more solid plan would've changed the outcome of Infinity War (it seems like the only way for the heroes to ultimately win is lose at first as insinuated by Doctor Strange), but if anything, the fact that the Avengers were mostly scattered in the movie, dealing with the villain separately without a cohesive strategy certainly didn't help their cause. The fact that the three teams (Titan, Wakanda, and Thor's crew) didn't have any means to communicate with each other made things worse with Bruce the only one delivering the news of Thanos' imminent arrival to the Earth-bound heroes. If Thor, Rocket, and Groot didn't arrive on Wakanda, the fight there would've finished way sooner. At the end of the film, they didn't even know where Tony Stark is, or if he's still alive.
On the flipside, it's questionable how quickly Killmonger would've been able to come up with a better plan in Infinity War considering that Thanos' attack was designed to catch the Avengers off guard. During the whole film, Earth's Mightiest Heroes were playing catch-up with the Mad Titan. Not knowing much about him and what his endgame was for the most part of the narrative made it difficult for them to really develop a scheme to defeat him. Killmonger, on the other hand, spent several years putting together a failproof plan to claim the Wakandan throne which is why he was able to execute it seamlessly, until T'Challa, with the help of the Jabari tribe, came back to stop him.
