Black Panther: 10 fun facts that will blow your mind

1. T’Challa’s Parentage

Black Panther depicts Queen Mother Ramonda as T’Challa’s mother, but their relationship in the comics is different. The Black Panther’s mother is actually a woman named N’Yami, who was the first wife of T’Chaka. Ramonda is his stepmother who raised him as her own.

Queen N’Yami died in childbirth with T’Challa, leaving him and his adoptive brother, Hunter, without a mother and their father without his wife. Years later, T’Chaka marries Ramonda and makes her his queen, as well as stepmother to his sons and later mother of his daughter, Shuri. Growing up, T’Challa viewed Ramonda as surrogate mother, as he didn’t have memories of his biological mother the way Hunter did. The prince had great respect for her, not just as a queen of his adoptive mother but as the mother of his sister.

All in all, Ramonda is seen to be supportive of her son and loves him and Shuri equally. In the film, she even sits on the Wakandan council and is shown to share a close bond with each of T’Challa’s associates, seeing Nakia and Okoye as members of their family. However, she is shown to be wary of Everett Ross when Nakia reunites with her and Shuri after Killmonger believes he’s killed T’Challa in ritual combat.