Sterling K. Brown Wants To Return To The MCU, But How?

Sterling K. Brown in Black Panther
(Image credit: Marvel)

Did you remember that Sterling K. Brown has appeared in the MCU? The actor had a minor role in Black Panther, the 18th of the Marvel movies in order, as N’Jobu, the father of Michael B. Jordan’s Erik Killmonger. Seven years have passed since Black Panther’s release, and the This is Us star is looking to get back into the superhero franchise. But how would that be accomplished given that, well, N’Jobu was killed off?

Brown, whom those with a Hulu subscription can currently see in the political thriller TV series Paradise, shared his desire to return to the MCU in an interview with Variety, saying:

I feel like Marvel should be like ‘Law & Order’ — after a certain number of years, you gotta reset, you get to come back. I would love to come back to the Marvel universe, absolutely. Please have me back. Please, please. Thank you.

A lot has happened with Sterling K. Brown since Black Panther came out. His time as Randall Pearson came to an end when This is Us wrapped up after six seasons, and he’s taken part in movies and TV shows like Frozen II, American Fiction, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Solar Opposites and Invincible. He’s also set to star opposite Henry Cavill in the upcoming live-action Voltron movie. Brown’s profile is bigger than ever, and considering he didn’t get that much screen time in Black Panther, I don’t blame him for wanting to get that MCU “reset.”

But as mentioned earlier, not only is N’Jobu dead, he’s been dead since the early ‘90s. The character met his end when King T’Chaka, his older brother, fatally injured him using his Black Panther claws when N’Jobu tried to shoot him. Now, N’Jobu did reappear in Black Panther’s present day storyline when Killmonger saw his father in the Ancestral Plane after ingesting the Heart-Shaped Herb. However, with Killmonger also dead, the chances of seeing N’Jobu in Black Panther 3 or any of the upcoming Marvel movies is unlikely.

So if Sterling K. Brown wants to return to the MCU, it’ll need to be as a different character. Fortunately, there are a handful of examples of actors playing two different roles in the MCU, including Gemma Chan as Minn-Erva and Sersi, Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton and Lylla, and Michelle Yeoh as Aleta Ogord and Ying Nan. Even Robert Downey Jr., who helped anchor this franchise as Tony Stark/Iron Man for 11 years, is getting ready to play Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Granted, it’s speculated that he’ll end up being a Tony variant, but still, it counts!

I’ll join Sterling K. Brown in asking Kevin Feige and the rest of the Marvel Studios brass to consider him for a new role. It’d be great to see him leave an even bigger stamp on the MCU, so if that happens, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know about it.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.

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