Researchers at the Data & Society institute found that numerous members of alternative far-right communities have posted videos and memes suggesting the Marvel smash-hit movie's hero T'Challa — the king of a self-sustaining African nation called Wakanda — is a character they can get behind.

A meme cited in the study, for example, badly misconstrues the values of T'Challa to accuse him of being an "isolationist" who is against immigration and diversity. That same meme — which is titled "Black Panther is Alt-Right" — shows the character with a hat reading "Make Wakanda Great Again" edited onto his head.

In reality, the movie makes it clear Wakanda is kept hidden from the outside world to protect the nation's people, and even still, T'Challa strives to share his country's vast resources with the rest of the planet.

Alt-Right trolls have shared this meme online. Becca Lewis, a researcher for the study, says white nationalists and trolls have a range of reasons for attempting to co-opt the movie's identity.

"They are embracing it in part because they know it is not expected, and they want to kind of trick people and they want to confuse people," Lewis told the Daily News. "At the same time, they are doing this manipulative rhetoric where they are trying to equate black identity politics with white identity politics, which erases any issues of power, colonialism and racism that actually are the basis for black identity politics."

The study, which was obtained by the Daily News, has not been released to the public. The Washington Post first reported on the study.

© The Associated Press This image released by Disney shows Chadwick Boseman in a scene from Marvel Studios' "Black Panther." “Black Panther” is king of the U.S. box office for the third straight weekend. Studio estimates Sunday, March 4, 2018… Lewis and her team have been researching the internet behavior of white nationalists since before the 2016 election, and they began documenting the attention these circles paid to "Black Panther" last summer.

A prominent online vlogger shared a video at the time analyzing why the alt-right should support "Black Panther."

In the video, he called for the alt-right to "meme it all over social media and attend screenings en masse, proudly showing their solidarity with him and his values. If not only just for the giggle factor, it would definitely confuse, disorient, and discombobulate those on the far-left."

Lewis says the way these posters reacted to the popularity of "Black Panther" differed, but notes it was a prevalent talking point among white nationalists.

"It's almost impossible to discern the intentions behind their posts, and that's by design," Lewis said. "They know that joking racism can very easily slide into real racism, and ambiguity can act as a shield.

"If someone attempts to call them out for the racist nature of what they're doing, they can say it's just a joke. … If, however, someone takes it seriously and ends up getting radicalized through this content, it's a win for them," she continued. "So they can kind of have it both ways."

"Black Panther" is the first installment to the Marvel Cinematic Universe film franchise to focus on a black superhero or feature a predominantly black cast.

The movie has grossed more than a billion dollars at the global box office and has topped the domestic weekend box office in each of its four weeks in theaters.

"Everybody wants a piece of the pie," Wilson Morales, editor of BlackFilm.com, told The News. "These (white nationalists) are trying to find a way, like, 'Ok, you see what they're doing? How do we work it to our angle?' (They want) to see how that can play out to their 'constituents' and so forth, to make it work for them."

Disney did not reply to the Daily News' request for comment on the study.