This summer Marvel will bring both Captain America and Thor to theaters, but those two characters are barely scratching the surface of what the studio has planned. With a backlog containing thousands of characters we could be swimming in comic book adaptations for the next 100 years. Last year, Marvel chief Kevin Feige took every opportunity he could to set us up for what they have in store, suggesting solo films about Dr. Strange and Iron Fist, but one of the characters mentioned most often was Black Panther. Now the project is officially moving forward.
THR reports that Marvel has hired Mark Bailey, best known as a story editor for documentaries like Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and writing Pandemic: Facing AIDS for HBO, to script a solo film for the African superhero. Created back in the 1960s, movie adaptations have been considered before, the most significant being an attempt in the early 1990s with Wesley Snipes, but things never worked out. The masked identity of an African king named T'challa, the character possesses superhuman-level senses and strengths as well as retractable claws and a weapon known as the Ebony Blade. The character is married to the X-Men's storm, but considering that Fox still owns the rights to all of the X-Men, that won't be featured in the movie.
This move was kind of expected after Jon Favreau revealed the Black Panther Easter Egg in Iron Man 2 last year, but it's still pretty cool news nonetheless. The character has a pretty solid following and could make for a really cool movie. So now the big question: who would you like to see cast in role?
