‘Black Panther’ Fans Searching For Wakanda Have Discovered This Illinois Town

If you saw Marvel's Black Panther and you're from the Rockford area, you had to know there was a very good chance something like this could happen.

No spoilers so you're good, but T'Challa, 'Black Panther', hails from Wakanda. A fictional country located in Africa.

When spoken out loud, Wakanda sounds very much like the nearby village of Wauconda.

Wauconda, about 70 miles directly east of Rockford, is a small village in Lake County and home to just over 13,000 residents, none of which is the Black Panther.

That hasn't stopped fans of the movie from calling Wauconda in search of vibranium. Vibranium is a precious material that can only be found in Wakanda. Fans are also screaming a popular battle cry from the movie when calling.

Alise Homola, who works at the village hall in Wakanda, told the Chicago Sun-Times "We had a guy call and [he] was shouting that (Wakanda Forever). I was a little confused."

The internet has also had some fun with it too.

If you haven't seen Black Panther yet, please do so. Black Panther raked in over $200M nationwide in just one weekend, making it the fifth highest-grossing opening for a film in box office history.

Sweet Lenny is the brand manager of 97ZOK and Operations Manager for Townsquare Media Rockford. Catch him afternoons 3 to 7 on 97ZOK. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and like his page on Facebook.