One of the best moments in 'Infinity War' was completely improvised

Avengers: Infinity War is such a tightly paced movie that it's hard to think about improvisation slipping through the cracks of Marvel's master plan.

But the Russo brothers's director commentary on the Blu-ray edition of Infinity War (h/t Shadow and Act) reveals that one of the movie's coolest moments came completely unexpected.

The scene occurs at the beginning of the Battle of Wakanda, where the earthbound Avengers, the Wakandan army, and the Jabari tribe join forces to fight Thanos's army of space dogs (well, that's what Rocket likes to call them). As the armies prepare to take the fight to Thanos, Winston Duke's Chief M'Baku begins a familiar war chant — the same heard in the first challenge and later battle against Killmonger in Black Panther.

Chadwick Boseman's King T'Challa follows the Jabari chant up with his own and the battle begins with the now heavily meme-ified catchphrase "Wakanda forever!" Neither of the powerful war chants were in the script.

Since Black Panther and Infinity War had overlapping filming schedules, the Russo brothers didn't see Black Panther before shooting the Avengers's battle in Wakanda, and Duke's Jabari chant caught them both off guard.

Joe Russo says in the commentary that Duke's chant "led to the responding war cry that T'Challa leads," and added that though they kept the sequence he and his brother had "we had no idea 'Wakanda forever' was going to be amazing."

(Which, sure. It's not like Black Panther was already one of the MCU's most anticipated films in its ten-year run or anything. Definitely seems logical to underestimate Black Panther's impact even a year before it came out. OK.)

Anyway, the scene turned out awesome. M'Baku and T'Challa's callback to the excellent battle scenes from Black Panther was just another example of how dope it is when Marvel actors know their characters well enough to improvise iconic moments that stand out in a universe chock-full of superheroes. Wakandan excellence at its best.