Black Panther is a little over two years away, but casting news for T'Challa's solo movie is starting to seep in. Today it was announced that Michael B. Jordan is joining the cast of Black Panther, the Ryan Coogler-directed superhero movie about one of the breakout stars of Captain America: Civil War. Black Panther will be Coogler’s third feature film and the third that stars Michael B. Jordan. That’s three for three, and sometimes it’s best to keep the hot streak going.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Michael B. Jordan will be joining the cast of Black Panther, which so far mainly consists of Chadwick Boseman in the lead role. Recently, there were rumblings that Lupita Nyong’o was in negotiations to join the film as well, and if she does sign on, then this is shaping up to be an absolutely stacked cast. Now we wait with baited breath for the announcement that Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross and Andy Serkis’ Klaue are on board, and then this will pretty much be a perfect movie, cast wise. Both are characters deeply tied to Black Panther and both of them were set up in earlier films (Civil War for Freeman, Age of Ultron for Serkis).
THR doesn’t have any word on which character Michael B. Jordan will be playing, but they believe it will be a villain. That’s unconfirmed, but it’d be cool to see Jordan stretch his villain chops. I don’t know many Black Panther villains outside of Klaw and a guy named Man-Ape (a big gorilla-ish man). One is already taken and I can’t see Jordan as Man-Ape at all. There is a villain called Killmonger who could suite Jordan. He was exiled from Wakanda by the Black Panther and lived in the United States, his hatred for T’Challa growing with every McDonald’s he saw. Eventually, he tries to lead a coup to usurp the throne, but it never really works out for him. With some tweaking, he could easily fit into the MCU, and provide a unique perspective in the film.
Of course, Michael B. Jordan could not be a villain at all, and will instead just be a citizen of Wakanda. Maybe he’s best buds with T’Challa, or a warrior in the army or even his right-hand man? He could be all three for all we know. Coincidentally, there are now two Human Torch’s in the MCU, the first being Chris Evans. I don’t know what it means for that Fantastic Four sequel that’s somehow still alive, but I think we can all agree that Michael B. Jordan has made the right call.
Black Panther has some great talent behind it, and the wait for February 16, 2018 seems way too long now.
