SNL: Sterling K. Brown takes on a new Black Panther role in a 'deleted' scene

It seemed unlikely that SNL would miss the opportunity to spoof both This Is Us and Black Panther with Sterling K. Brown as host, and they delivered on both.

A Black Panther “deleted scene” found Brown playing T’Challa’s great-great-grandfather on the ancestral plane where T’Challa (brought to life by Chris Redd filling in for Chadwick Boseman) has gone to seek wisdom.

He meets the spirits of all of his ancestors in the royal bloodline, including a wacky uncle-by-marriage played by Kenan Thompson in one of his signature off-the-wall roles. T’Challa believed his uncle to still be alive, but he’s been in the afterlife for a few days after telling his wife, one of the Dora Milaje, to wear a wig. “That’s the last thing I remember,” he opines.

Sterling K. Brown struggles not to break while Thompson asks T’Challa for weed, treats a lion’s meat burger he’s grilled like Simba at the opening of The Lion King (complete with the opening lines of “Circle of Life”), and eventually smashes said burger in Brown’s face.

Thompson’s character does manage to ask some questions we’ve been wondering ourselves, like what time is it on the ancestral plane where the sky is always purple?

Watch the clip above to see Brown take on a Black Panther role very different from his performance as Prince N’Jobu in the film.