In his usual blustery, super hip-hop way, El Mayimbe of Latino Review spent the day pimping his upcoming Marvel film scoop, promising to reveal one of the unknown movies on their slate. While we have a good idea that one may be Ant-Man (which Edgar Wright has teased could start as early as this year), or the official (and inevitable) announcement of The Avengers 2, Marvel and Kevin Feige have teased and dodged a lot of information at this point.
Well, according to Latino Review’s scoop, it will be a Black Panther film that is next announced.
There’s an obvious heap of sense that shooting this movie makes, and I’ll not be surprised at all if this turns out to be true. Marvel has already started outright denying the news to anyone who asks, but that was expected no matter what LR’s scoop turned out to be. They’ve lied outright about villains and plot points that were later confirmed (almost all of The Avengers was picked apart and denied a year+ ago), and it almost makes it MORE convincing because Black Panther has decidedly not been in the films — Ant-Man, Runaways, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Inhumans — that Feige has mentioned. It’s entirely in their playbook to misdirect. And here’s the thing- if they don’t make it now, they’re going to make it soon. And if they don’t… they’re dumb.
You’ll also see plenty of mention of Wakanda’s inclusion of a map in Iron Man 2, and the Wakandan origin of the Vibranium from which Cap’s shield is made. To take that a step farther- let’s note that The Avengers features a very specific beat that seems — with this hindsight — especially designed to demonstrate/set a precedent for the power of the fictional African metal that is the primary resource of the African Marvel city.
As for the marketing strategy, if you think about it through- doing a Black Panther movie would allow Marvel to target a market of moviegoers under-serviced by superhero films and Hollywood in general. It’s kind of reductive to say they can go after the Tyler Perry (read: black) market with such a film, but it’s absolute true that they can take the broad pop leverage of the Avengers phenomenon and lock in a whole new segment of fans forever with a sharp Black Panther film. Recent films like Think Like A Man have shown you can make a film that revolves around Black protagonists and still have traditional crossover appeal (read: not scare off the white people and teenagers)- something I think Marvel could pull off very well.
But who could play the Wakandan? Please, there are a ton of great, obvious choices- Idris Elba, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Ealy, Nate Parker, and — my personal favorite — John Boyega. Seriously, fuck off… the kid is perfect, and his ties to Joe Cornish and Edgar Wright just make it all the more natural. It’s obvious because it’s correct.
So I’ll let you take over from here… Who do you see playing the Black Panther? What story might they tell? How could it collide with the Marvel Cinematic U? Let loose in the comments…
13 comments
I think a lot of the casting depends on whether they want to go with T’Challa as an established ruler or a young, untested one. If it’s the latter, Boyega is a great choice. If it’s the former, then you have to go with one of the other guys.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is a fucking perfect choice. I don’t know about Boyega, he seems too young even for a “young untested ruler” angle. I also think it’s important that if they cast T’Challa they pick an actual African (or somebody who actually looks African) as opposed to an African American (Nate Parker and Michael Ealy don’t look African enough.)
Is Boyega the kid in “Attack the Block”? If so, aright. Yeah, I can see it. But, oh damn, Chiwetel Ejiofor would be my absolutely number one choice. That man can act and he command the screen. He’d own that role.
And so an “Inhumans” film is on Feige’s list? Excuse me….this is the first I’ve heard/read this (didn’t read the article that mentioned this originally). And wow. I was excited about the prospect of a live action Dr. Strange, but an Inhumans film would be a dream. An absolute dream come true.
Indeed, if we’re going with a “grown up” T’Challa Ejiofor would be aces. Have Whedon call him up! As for working it into the overall Marvel Universe…aside from the Vibranium connection, the events of Avengers could easily be “spun” by T’Challa as a good excuse for his notoriously isolationist country to pay more attention to the outside world, and I could see him basically “buying” his way into the Avengers via Nick Fury: “You let me in on this group of yours, and I will see to it your organization receives a kilogram of Vibranium every year.”
Just me tossing stuff at the wall, really, but I think it’d be a great reflection on T’Challa’s character to have him be the one holding the cards when it comes to his interactions with Fury. My only concern about the Black Panther in an Avengers movie is that he’s basically a character that’s got elements of almost all the existing Avengers rolled into one (Stark’s wealth and intelligence, Thor’s regality, Widow’s stealth and cunning, Captain America’s physical capability and leadership skills)…it’d be very easy to either overplay or underplay him (in the group environment) from that perspective.
Or there’s a “backdoor” into the Avengers side of things – In the books, T’challa basically invented the Quinjet. They never did say where SHIELD got those things in the movie, but it sure as heck wasn’t from Stark….
I actually dug how the Ultimate Avengers 2 animated film handled the old/young T’Challa issue by essentially giving us both – the wise ruler T’Chaka and his inexperienced son T’Challa. That wouldn’t be a terrible template for a feature, really, since you could have Black Panther action throughout, with T’Chaka dying midway through, passing the mantle to his son.
Anybody remember when Wesley Snipes was supposed to play Black Panther?
” blustery, super hip-hop way” ?
Careful….
I think Boyega would be great! He has a kingly look about him. How about t’chaka though? Pity S.Jackson cant play him, that would be funny.
As for te plot, I bet they’re gonna go through tchaka’s death at the hands of Klaw… which would mean that t’challa will face the intelligencia. My guess is that they re going to avoid the alien invasions, queen bees etc and focus on the BP’s troubles in Wakanda. Cant wait to see him on is throne.
Also…. Inhumans movie!?! WOW and also YEAH!
Renn Brown, Perhaps…M’Baku The Man Ape, could be T’Challa’s Foe!
I honestly don’t know anything about the Black Panther, but if you’re gonna’ have a black superhero protagonist… what about Michael Jai White? His Arts are way more Martial than any other actor currently portraying a superhero. I don’t know Black Panther’s fighting style, but, I mean, DAMN, White’s style just seems perfect for me.
Unless he really is portraying Jax in the maybe, is that happening?, new Mortal Kombat movie. Then his schedule might be tight between that and doing Tyler Perry’s bidding.
If it sounds like I’m man-loving a bit, I just might be.
John Boyega is an inspired choice as long as every one of T’Challa’s line ends with “innit”.
I hope this is true, because i’m really looking forward to seeing the ‘Black Panther’ on the big screen, the jungle settings combined with advanced technology of Wakanda would be bad ass. Marvel is way ahead of DC with their characters hitting the big screen, and this would be another big step of seperation for them. Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Hulk 3, Antman, Avengers 2 & 3, Sheild, i say bring ’em all on in due time Marvel, which i’m sure they will.
I would say Chiwetel Ejiofor or Micheal Jai White, bith guys can actually fight so I would say either or.
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