Morris Chestnut may have just let the cat out of the bag… so to speak. In a recent tweet to his followers, the star of The Call heavily implied that he’ll be playing The Black Panther in the near future.
“It’s time to get familiar with the Black Panther character!” he wrote, and then promptly deleted, from his account at @Morris_Chestnut (via Coming Soon). He also reportedly added, “Not final #BlackPanther may be in #avengers2 first. RT @jamaal91604133: @Morris_Chestnut Can’t wait to see this movie. #BlackPanther” but that tweet also appears to have been taken down.
The Black Panther was the first black superhero in American comics, first appearing in The Fanastic Four #52 way back in 1966. The superhero, real name T’Challa, is the ruler of the African nation of Wakanda, a technologically advanced civilization with an enormous repository of Vibranium. He’s been a member of The Avengers on and off in the comic book series, and has long been rumored to have a feature film in development, dating back to 1992, when Wesley Snipes first expressed interest in the project. Snipes went on instead to play the Marvel Comics hero Blade in a 1998 film that helped jumpstart the modern superhero movie zeitgeist.
It’s a little early, perhaps, for Marvel Studios to be casting The Avengers 2, although it’s not unthinkable that they’re planning ahead for a solo Black Panther movie afterwards in Phase Three. Morris Chestnut certainly has the chiseled features and charisma necessary to play T’Challa on film, although one imagines that Marvel Studios would probably have pursued more high profile stars before offering Chestnut the most prominent black superhero in Marvel Comics.
In any case, this is a rumor for now, and a possibility at best. CraveOnline will be back with more Black Panther news once we get official word on Chestnut’s redacted statement.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast, co-star of The Trailer Hitch, and the writer of The Test of Time. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
