UPDATE – 05/19/2016: As we said in the article below, reports that John Boyega would be joining the Black Panther were incredibly tenuous at best. Now, we have definitive proof (for what that’s worth) that he will NOT be joining the franchise after all. His reps released a statement to Complex that the reports aren’t true. “Talks are false,” the rep said. That’s a shame. Still, pretty great cast already.
Read the original story below:
This one falls under the heading of the rumoriest of rumors to ever ruminate, but there’s talk on the internet that another big name might be joining the ever-growing cast of Marvel’s Black Panther. Last week was full to the brim with casting for the February 2017 film directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler starring Chadwick Boseman. We already told you that Lupita Nyong’o is apparently going to join the cast as a heroic character, while Michael B. Jordan could be joining as a villain. Now, it seems like the name John Boyega may also join an already impressive cast.
The mention comes from Heroic Hollywood at the very bottom of an interview piece with Coogler. And we stress the rumorness of this bit, which HH even cops to, stating in total “Hot, unconfirmed scuttlebutt is telling me Star Wars: The Force Awakens star John Boyega may be meeting for the film as well.” That’s it. He may be meeting for the movie, which would be pretty great, hot and unconfirmed as it may be.
If Boyega does indeed join the movie, this would be one of the most impressive casts in Marvel movie history. After shooting to stardom as one of the heroes of The Force Awakens, Boyega seems a perfect choice for a superhero movie. But who could he play? For a heroic character, it could be W’Kabi, T’Challa’s competent second-in-command, completely loyal to his liege. If it’s a villainous character, perhaps a counterpoint to Michael B. Jordan’s character, I’d say Reverend Achebe would be a cool choice, a farmer from South Africa who sells his soul to Mephisto and becomes an evil, toothy-grinned baddie.
But I’m just going to again say that this is about as big a rumor as can be, but we certainly would love to see Boyega join the MCU. Who do you think he should play, in a world where he is cast, in the comments below!
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Image: Disney/Lucasfilm
Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. Follow him on Twitter!
