In the end, Freeman flies ‘Solo’

Martin Freeman calls it his “little Han Solo moment.”

During a key moment in Ryan Coogler’s mega-budgeted superhero film, Black Panther, Freeman’s dashing CIA agent Everett K. Ross leans on his training as a fighter pilot in a nail-biting, climatic scene that takes place during the heat of battle in the fictional, technically advanced African nation of Wakanda.

“I was really pleased,” said Freeman. “I thought it was generous on the film’s part. We’re not short of white heroes in movies. So, I thought, to give one of the two white characters a bit of a heroic moment spoke very well of them.”

As Freeman is quick to point out, Black Panther is not about Everett K. Ross. He’s a sidekick in the film, albeit a heroic one who is able to take charge in chaotic situations.

So Freeman was adamant that Ross not be a “schmuck” when interacting with Black Panther’s titular hero and his many heroic cohorts. While the British actor has proven to be an expert at deadpan comedy — check him out in the U.K. version of The Office, or his turn as a loyal sidekick Dr. John Watson in Sherlock — he wanted Ross to be more than comic relief.

“In Black Panther, he’s going to be put out of his comfort zone enough that he doesn’t have to also be goofy,” Freeman said.

Like the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Ross made his Marvel movie debut in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Freeman signed on with the understanding the character would eventually reappear in the Marvel Universe.

Freeman’s Ross is much more of a take-charge type of guy who dodges bullets, interrogates baddies and pilots futuristic crafts in Wakanda.

“It feels pretty crazy,” Freeman says of the action sequences. “The shoot ’em up scene in the Korean casino is just full of very impressive work by stunt people.”

As for that “Han Solo” moment, much of Ross’s heroics were aided by greenscreen technology.