FANCASTING BLACK PANTHER

Note: I wrote this almost a year ago, but never got around to publishing it when Ava DuVernay dropped out. With casting in full swing, I figured I’d let it out into the wild.

Fancasting is the arguably the most self-indulgent pursuit a fan can engage in. More than just picking look a like actors, good fancasting involves imagining which actor would be best suited for the role, which in turn means envisioning what the film itself would actually look like. In a sense, you’re not just casting the film, you’re writing and directing it in your head. In other words, you’re assuming that you know how to make the movie better than the studios do.

And yet, it’s what all fans do when they’re deeply invested in a character or property. I am incredibly excited about the upcoming Black Panther film, and in particular excited about the possibility of Ava Duvernay directing it. I’ve written in further depth about why Ava would be the perfect choice fo Black Panther, but as a huge fan of both Ava and the MCU I can’t help but imagine what that film might look like — and who would join her for the film. Here then is my fancast for the Black Panther film, with why the actor would be great for the role, what the character would look like in the MCU, and a brief more conventional bio, which I’ve tried to keep as close to what is canon in the comics or what we know for certain about the character in the film.

Principal Cast

Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa, The Black Panther

This one is already cast, but what a wonderful casting it is. Anyone who has seen either 42 or Get On Up knows the star power Boseman exhibits on screen, and he’s already shown his ability to portray near-mythic historical characters with humanity and nuance. He’s gonna kill as T’Challa.

Little introduction is needed for T’Challa, and I expect the MCU version of the character to map pretty closely to the comics one, including the fact that he is one of the smartest people alive and more than a bit arrogant. T’Challa likely will have been king for a while, and I also think it’d be neat if they kept the King of the Dead powers he recently gained in the comics. Also worth remembering that T’Challa is more than “peak human” — he has heightened/superhero strength, agility and speed bestowed to him from the Heart Shaped Herb. There’s a reason he can take on Captain America and win. The central conflict for T’Challa will be whether to maintain Wakanda’s isolationist position with the emergence of world ending threats — particularly Thanos’s imminent arrival (Black Panther takes place between Infinity War parts 1 and 2).

T’Challa is the current Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda. The son of the previous Black Panther T’Chaka, T’Challa’s mother died in childbirth, and he was raised primarily by T’Chaka’s second wife, Ramonda. As the living symbol of the Panther God he possesses extraordinary abilities beyond that of a normal man, including the ability to commune with the dead. Though T’Challa has maintained Wakanda’s isolationist position in the world, he fears that threats may be coming that Wakanda alone can not stand against.

Lupita Nyong’o as Shuri

You’d think Lupita N’yongo would be ubiquitous by now — she’s stunningly beautiful, an academy award winner, and has the grace and charm that movie stars are made of. Yet the only film role we’ve seen her in since she won her Oscar was a bit part in the Liam Neeson thriller Non-Stop (filmed before she won the Oscar), and her two most prominent upcoming roles are not only supporting ones, but don’t even feature the real life N’Yongo — she’s in Mo Cap as Maz Kanata in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and voice acting in Jon Favreau’s animated The Jungle Book (she’s also currently filming Mira Nair’s Queen of Katabe, where she will be on screen as a human, though there too she isn’t the actual lead). It’s past time N’yongo was given a role befitting her talent and stature, and having an oscar winning actress prominetly featured would be equally beneficial for the promotion and accesbility of Black Panther.

Shuri would be a perfect role for an actress of N’Yongo’s calibre. She’s a badass warrior who can go toe to toe with any male fighter, and is a fierce figure who doesn’t let her gender stand in her way from speaking up and making herself heard. Wakanda has been portrayed as both a relatively patriarchal culture and one with progressive gender norms, sometimes both at the same time. While Shuri is currently the Black Panther and ruler of Wakanda in the comics, she is seemingly the first ever female Black Panther. I’d personally like to see Wakanda as a male dominated society, but it be the women who save the day in the final act of the film. Ava in particular could do wonders with exploring gendered power systems and their subversions. Even if they don’t go down that route, and instead present Wakanda as a model of gender equity, Shuri represents a female character who is every bit as badass as the male lead.

Daughter of Queen Ramonda and the younger half-sister to T’Challa, Shuri is a fierce warrior who is never afraid to speak her mind. Though Wakanda is in many respects a relatively patriarchal culture, Shuri is a member of the high council, and thinks that she’d be just as qualified to lead the country as T’Challa is.

Note: I don’t believe the THR report that Nyong’o is the love interest, and in fact expect her not only to be playing Shuri, but end the film as Queen of Wakanda!

David Oyelowo as T’Shan

Is Ava Duvernay ever going to make another movie without David Oyelowo? I kind of hope not. Duvernay has called Oyelowo her muse and she brings out the best in this incredible actor. Oyelowo has tremendous range and I think could do justice to the complex character of T’Shan.

While T’Shan is a very minor character in the comics, I imagine him having a much larger role in the film. In fact, I picture him as a surprise villain, in the vein of Robert Redford’s Alexander Pierce. T’Shan is jealous of T’Challa, believing that he should have succeeded his father S’Yan as the next Black Panther. This version of the character could also draw upon elements of T’Challa’s adopted brother Hunter the White Wolf (who is also jealous of T’Challa) and be in charge of the Hatut Zeraze, the Wakandan secret police. The central twist of the film would be that he has been plotting a coup with the help of Klaue.

T’Shan is the cousin of T’Challa and son of S’Yan, who ruled briefly as Black Panther after his brother T’Chaka was assassinated. He is jealous of T’Challa and feels that he should have succeeded his own father as the next Black Panther.

Note: This is who I believe Jordan has been cast as!

Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue

Speaking of Klaue, he has already appeared, fantastically portrayed by Andy Serkis. Serkis nailed Klaue’s sinister bravado perfectly, and I can’t wait to see more.

Like The Winter Solider, Black Panther will have numerous villain characters, but Klaue is the chief antagonist. He’s no longer in it for the money (Ultron made him a multi-billionaire), but instead wants revenge on Wakanda as well as access to its vibranium. Klaue isn’t a huge threat in of himself, but he’s central figure connected to all the other villanious elements of the film.

Ulysses Klaue is a black-market arms dealer, smuggler and gangster operating out of South Africa and a former acquaintance of Tony Stark. He successfully smuggled a large amount of Vibranium out of Wkanada before being caught and branded a thief. He now seeks revenge on the country that wronged him.

Jennifer Hudson as Songbird

Yup, I went there — I’ve decided to race swap a character for the first Marvel movie (indeed the first ever blockbuster film) to feature a majority black cast. Eat it racist nerds. Jennifer Hudson is Academy Award winning actress, and, as befitting a character named Songbird, an incredible singer. She’s equally adept at portraying vulnerability as she is at being the baddest bitch in the room, making her perfect for the role — though she’ll mainly be drawing upon the latter talent.

In the MCU, Songbird would be an associate of Klaue, and the one who leads the Thunderbolts (not referred to as such until the end of the film) in their operation against Wakanda. This is relatively consistent with the comics — Songbird first gets her powers from Klaue, and is not only a founding member of the Thunderbolts but also its most frequent leader. In a similar fashion, the Thunderbolts as the team who helps take down Wakanda is inspired by the super villain team assembled in the first arc of Hudlin’s run, though in the film they would be betrayed by Klaue/T’Shan, and end up allying with T’Challa to help him retake the throne.

Songbird’s powers in the comics are a bit unrealistic for the relatively grounded MCU, so instead she would simply be able to use her voice to paralyze or knock out opponents, and can fly thanks to a jet pack like device. Songbird would also serve as the romantic interest for T’Challa — every MCU film has one (assuming one includes the sexual tension between Cap and Widow in Winter Soldier), and given that Shuri is T’Challa’s sister, the film needs a different character to fill this role. In a neat twist for the fans, Songbird’s name would be revealed to be Monica Lynne — one of T’Challa’s principal love interests in the comics.

Songbird works for Klaue, and her criminal background makes her ideal for operations that require stealth rather than overt force. Her vocal chords have been enhanced by Klaue to allow her to use her voice as a powerful weapon.

Alfre Woodard as Ramonda, Queen Mother

Stunningly beautiful and also old enough to realistically be Boseman’s mother, Alfre Woodard is an academy award nominated and multiple Emmy winning actress, with the poise and gravitas to project the necessary authority. Indeed, she already has experience playing a head of state, having portrayed the President of the United States in the TV show State of Affairs. Moreover, she has actually already played Ramonda — she provided the voice for Ramonda in in the Black Panther animated series.

Ramonda is the second wife of T’Chaka, whose first wife (the birth mother of T’Challa) died in childbirth. She is the biological mother of Shuri but is also the only mother figure T’Challa has ever known. However, she is still viewed as an outsider by many Wakandans, as she is herself not from Wakanda, but South Africa. That’s all consistent with the comics, but I do want to make a suggestion for a change in the MCU — that the Dora Milaje are unknown to the Black Panther, and are instead a secret group of warrior women that Ramonda herself has organized. Or rather, that the Dora Milaje exist publicly, but only as prospective brides for the Panther, selected from the various tribes and who serve as handmaidens of the Queen. Following the death of T’Chaka however, Ramonda resolves that no queen will ever be in a position where she is useless to help her king, and so trains the Dora Milaje in secret as fearsome warriors. Following the coup, it will be the Dora Milaje who help T’Challa retake the throne.

Ramonda is a South African national, the mother of Shuri, and Queen Mother of Wakanda. Despite having lived in Wakanda for over thirty years she is still viewed as an outsider and treated with suspicion by many Wakandans.

With Martin Freeman as Peter Henry Gyrich

We know that Martin Freeman is joining the MCU — he’ll appear first in Civil War and is rumoured to be returning for Black Panther. My guess is he’ll be playing a villain of some sort or at least an antagonist figure, as Freeman is so often type cast as the nice bumbling guy, and has expressed his desire to break away from that typecasting. Playing a sinister, controlling figure who is cool and in command in a blockbuster film would certainly help shift the general public’s perception of Freeman as just “the nice guy.”

So who will Freeman play? We don’t know. Initial speculation was that he’d play Everett K Ross, and now there’s a rumour that he’ll playing an original character by the name of Edward Chase, who is apparently the Prime Minister of England in the MCU. I however am convinced that he will be playing Henry Peter Gyrich. Gyrich is principally known as an X-Men character, and even appeared in the first X-Men movie, but he first appeared in Avengers #165 as the U.S. liaison to the Avengers on behalf of the NSA. It’s very likely that Gyrich is one the characters whose rights are shared with Fox, or even that Marvel owns him entirely and was simply not as attuned to the rights usage of its minor characters back in 2000. Assuming Marvel does indeed control the rights to the character, my guess is he would serve as the director of the Committee on Superhuman Activities (indeed, I think it’s entirely possible that Crossbones is already an agent of Gyrich’s in Civil War, and Gyrich actively engineers the catastrophe that brings about the registration act). In Black Panther, he wants Wakanda’s Vibranium in order to develop anti-superhuman weapons, and so would collude with Klaue by lending him the Thunderbolts in order to destablize Wakanda and obtain the Vibranium.

Peter Henry Gyrich is the director of the Committee on Superhuman Activities, an organization set up in the wake of SHIELD’s dissolution to monitor and oversee superhumans. Gyrich believes that Wakanda is a rogue state and that it’s vibranium is an essential resource to help combat and control those heroes who refuse to obey the registration act.

And Forest Whitaker as S’Yan

“It’s All Connected” is the phrase used to denote Marvel’s shared cinematic universe, but there’s another that connects all the Marvel feature films beyond a joint continuity — the presence of an Academy Award winning or nominated male actor who receives the coveted “and” billing on the film (namely Jeff Bridges, William Hurt, Anthony Hopkins, Stanley Tucci, Samuel Jackson, Ben Kingsley, Benecio del Toro and now Michael Douglass). There are at most half a dozen black actors who are both fit this requirement and are both plausible and ellibgle (Denzel Washington just isn’t happening). While I’d love to see Cuba Gooding Jr., Barkhad Abdi, and James Earl Jones in smaller parts, my pick for this spot would be Forest Whitaker in the role of S’Yan. He’s not only a fantastic actor and is also frequently included in promotions for films to help sell the movie — exactly what the film needs, particularly as it’s certain many people will assume that a Black Panther film is inherently “risky.”

S’Yan was a regular supporting character during Reginald Hudlin’s run on Black Panther, though he didn’t do anything particularly interesting. But like T’Shan, his role in the film will be elevated. He serves as the voice of reason, in contrast to his son’s rhetoric, and becomes the fall guy on whom T’Shan blames the attempted “coup” by the Thunderbolts.

S’Yan is the brother of former Black Panther T’Chaka (T’challa’s father), and the father of T’Shan. He served as Black Panther for a short period following T’Chaka’s assassination, and now acts as a key advisor to T’Challa. In contrast to his more militant and xenophobic son, he urges greater openness and cooperation with the outside world to combat the new dangers which threaten both Wakanda and the world at large.

Supporting Characters

The above characters are the principal cast — those who would be listed on the poster — but there are of course numerous other key supporting characters. Rather than delve into each one in depth, I’ll just provide a brief bit about the actor and a short description of their role in the film.

Royal Attendants

Ernie Hudson as T’Chaka

Ernie Hudson has already been rumoured for the role, so I’m just going with that suggestion. T’Chaka is T’Challa’s father and was himself the Black Panther. He’s long dead, and while it’s possible he would appear in a flashback, I’d also like to see T’Challa consult with him as King of the Dead.

Tony Todd as W’Kabi

Tony Todd is best known for his roles in Candyman and the Final Destination franchise, but he’s an incredibly versatile actor with a huge theatre background, who can more than the menacing villain roles we usually see him in. Mind, he’d certainly draw upon that talent for meance here. I see him as combining elements of both Zuri and W’Kabi, both minor characters from the comics — Zuri is a former close friend of T’Chaka and W’Kabi is a military leader. Though visually modeled more on Zuri I’ve picked W’Kabi for the character’s name, because I persoanlly find the inconsistency in Wakandan names (why they usually but not always have a prefix) annoying. The image of Todd is from a one episode appearance in Xena — nearly twenty years ago! — but it’s the only picture I could find of Todd with similar hair, and he’s barely aged a day in that time (and anyways, an older actor works better for the role).

Henry G. Sanders as N’Gassi

Henry G. Sanders was a standout in Selma and this gives him a chance to once again work with Duvernay. N’Gassi is part of the High Council and a senior advisor to T’Challa.

Laverne Cox as Aneka

Laverne Cox is an incredible actress and an utterly badass human, and I’d like to see her get a role that allows her to show on screen the latter. While Aneka could just as well be a cis woman — I think trans actors shouldn’t be just consigned to playing trans characters, but should also be given roles as cis characters that match their gender — I think it’d be very powerful to have a trans character in a major blockbuster. No one needs to remark on it, and in fact it might suggest that Wakanda is much more progressive when it comes to queer and trans acceptance than most countries.

Aneka is the head of the Dora Milaje. Until they are revealed in the film she would masquerade as simply Queen Ramonda’s chief attendant.

Danai Gueria as Nakia

Best known as Michone in The Walking Dead, Danai Gueria is another phenomenal talent with incredible range — I first saw her in the wonderful indie film The Visitor. Nakia is one of the two Dora Milaje who accompany T’Challa to America. In the comics, she develops an obsession with T’Challa, and this could be hinted at for future films by her being especially protective of him

Yaya DaCosta as Okoye

Yaya DaCosta (often credited as Yaya Alifia) has appeared in numerous tv shows and in films. She had a small role in Tron: Legacy but is perhaps best known for her small part in The Butler as David Oleyowo’s radical Black Panther girlfriend (she’ll also appear in Shane Black’s forthcoming The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe). Like Nakia, she is one of the Dora Milaje who accompanies T’Challa to America. Though there will be a number of Dora Milaje characters, mostly unamed, these two will be the principal ones.

Emayatzy Corinealdi, who starred in Duvernay’s sophmore feature Middle of Nowhere (which Oyelowo was also in) would be another possibility, but she just projects a warmth and kindness that doesn’t seem right for the role, whereas DaCosta has shown she can do fierce. But who knows I might well be typecasting.

Barkhad Abdi as Hunter the White Wolf

Honestly, I’m just looking for an excuse to include more Academy Award nominated actors (the principal cast contains four already!). But I think Barkhad Abdi would be great for a small role that could be reprised in the sequel. Skip the whole adopted son angle and just make him captain of the Hatut Zarare, the secret police force that T’Shan is in charge of. Though loyal to T’Shan, the final act would see Shuri face off against T’Shan, with Hunter unwilling to attack a member of the royal family, allowing for a final fight between T’Shan and Shuri.

Villains for Hire

DeObia Oparei as Killmonger

For Killmonger you need an actor with incredible physical presence, and while some people are inclined to suggest body builders or professional athletes for that reason alone, I think it’s far more important to have an actor who can, you know, act. DeBoia Operai certainly can do that — he’s got a distinguished stage history but is probably most familiar to viewers as Aero Hotah, the who was introduced in this season’s Game of Thrones (he’s the captain of the guards in Dorne, or the big dude with the glaive who broke up the fight between Jamie Lanister and the Sand Snakes). But he’s appeared in numerous Hollywood films, including Dredd, Alien 3, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (that’s the fourth one, which I had to look up — the image above is from that film), and the upcoming Independence Day sequel. He’s got pretty nifty video reel you can check out here.

While Klaw would serve as the principal antagonist, he’s no physical match for the Black Panther. Killmonger can serve as the secondary antagonist who teams up with Klaue. In the comics, Killmonger blames T’Chaka for his exile as a child, and that seems sufficient motivation here — Klaue convinces him they can get revenge together. He would be the leader of a group of mercenaries hired and outfitted by Klaue

Frank Grillo as Crossbones

Frank Grillo is of course playing Crossbones. Not exactly clear what his role is in Civil War but he seems like a perfect recruit for a secret government project such as the Thunderbolts, which he has been a member of in the comics as well. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise if Crossbones is already a government agent in Civil War.

Daniel Burhl as Zemo/Swordsman

Again, we know Daniel Bruhl is playing Zemo, but we don’t know what his role in Civil War will be. He seems like another good candidate for government recruitment, and is of course a founding member of the Thunderbolts. His costume from the comics doesn’t really work on screen, but a slight adaption of the Swordsman costume would, and it’s a nice combination of the classic Zemo costume and his Citizen V outfit. I think Swordsman would also serve as a good codename for him while on the team and in the field.

Olivia Wilde as Moonstone

Moonstone is a pretty classic femme fatale character — sexy, manipulative, and dangerous — but those roles require an actress who is more than just good looking, but also one who can seduce both the characters and the audience into trusting them even though you absolutely shouldn’t. Olivia Wilde can play sexy in her sleep, but most of her roles haven’t had much edge to them — she just plays “the hot girl.” She’s shown her chops though in films like Drinking Buddies and Third Person, and the buzz around her starring role in the indie drama Meadowland is incredible. Moonstone would let her play a character who uses her sex appeal like a weapon, and it’d be great to see Wilde to take on a role with a more wicked and manipulative feel.

Moonstone, also known as Dr. Karla Sofen, would be the resident psychologist assigned to the Thunderbolts. I’d change her powers completely — which are both overpowered and unrealistic for the MCU — and instead have her complement her natural manipulative abilities with some hypnosis.

Danny Pudi as Ghost

Abed is back in the house! As part of the greater connectivity of the MCU, it’d be a neat trick to have Danny Pudi’s cameo in The Winter Soldier evolve into something much bigger. While most audiences of course are familiar with Pudi as Abed, Pudi has a much greater dramatic range (as is the case for most actors associated with only a single role or type of character) — you can see him working in a more dramatic mode in his appearance on ER. Ghost would actually incorporate some of Abed’s neurotic tendencies, but it wouldn’t be (primarily) for humorous effect. And the fact that Ghost is almost always in his trademark suit and helmet would help viewers distance themselves from their association with Pudi as Abed.

So how does the SHIELD techie transform into the supervillain? His origin would be that in the wake of the revelations of HYDRA, “Agent Moore” (seemingly the character’s name) would have a complete mental breakdown. He would reveal himself to be a world class hacker, erasing his entire identity from the internet and all servers, and morph into a conspiracy nut who believes the all the world’s corporations and organizations are part of a giant Illuminati type conspiracy. Ghost’s phasing powers are also a bit unrealistic to come just from technology, so instead I’d imagine his suit grants him simple invisibility, as well as they ability to float/fly/hover, both of which aid in his hacking.

Oscar the Grouch as Man Thing

This muppet has been type cast for too long! Actually, Man-Thing will be entirely CGI and have no dialogue, so no actor is needed. And he’s already confirmed as existing in the MCU! Maria Hill remarked “who or what is a Man-Thing” in an episode of Agents of SHIELD. Man Thing would serve principally as transportation for the Thunderbolts, as he does in the comics — he can teleport small groups — but you could also get some Hulk like action out of the character as well.

Of course, this movie would set up a Thunderbolts spinoff movie, with a roster consisting Songbird (Jennifer Hudson), Crossbones (Frank Grillo), Zemo (Daniel Bruhl), Moonstone (Olvia Wilde), Ghost (Danny Pudi) and Man-Thing (Oscar!). That’s a great cast to headline a film. Hell, if Matthew McConaughey takes up the role of Norman Osborn, that’s your academy award actor for the “and” billing right there (actually I’d say there’s a good chance whoever they pick will someone pretty prolific, and there’s a decent chance that would include an Academy Award winner).

Honourable Mention: Eddie Murphy as Achebe

The film has enough going on without the introduction of another villain, but Achebe seems like a perfect choice for the sequel, and casting Eddie Murphy would be a classic out-of-the-box Marvel move. Commercially speaking, Murphy is one of the most successful actors of all time, but a string of critical flops makes me think this might be a role that would appeal to him, once again establishing his acting chops beyond the stereotyped roles he is known for. Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones could also play this part — a sinister Freeman would be interestingly against type. Basically what I’m saying is The Black Panther series should just attempt to include all available black Academy award nominees — and the funny/sad thing is that the list is short enough it’s not out of the realm of possibility. So start thinking up roles for Viloa Davis, Angela Basset, Whoppi Goldberg and Gabourey Sidibe people! (Let’s just skip Halle Berry). Hell, Quvenzhané Wallis could play a young Shuri, and I think it’d be neat if Oprah “played” T’Challa’s dead mother, seen only in photographs.

Though Christoper Priest’s run on Black Panther is rightly praised, Achebe in my opinion is a pretty terrible character. That doesn’t mean there isn’t the germ of a good idea that could be better developed for the screen however! Despite T’Shan’s treachery, most of the threats in my pitch for the first film come from outside threats. It would be interesting to see Achebe help ferment internal revolution, and he could also be a gateway to adding an additional supernatural element to the sequel.

Americans

William Hurt as General Thunderbolt Ross/The Red Hulk

We know that William Hurt is returning to reprise his role as General Ross in Civil War, but the rumour is that he will also become the Red Hulk. In the comics Ross remains in the form of the Red Hulk — he can’t transform back into human form like Banner — but still maintains his intelligence (though he does seem to be a bit angrier). His role in Black Panther would be small — part of an American “greeting party” sent to Wakanda. Having T’Challa stare down the Red Hulk, challenging him to try to attack Wakanda (with Ross backing off) would immediately establish Wakanda’s superiority.

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye and Don Cheadle as War Machine

These two would join Ross as part of the greeting party — Hawkeye because he’s likely to end up enlisting with the government, and because he and T’Challa apparently square off in Civil War (allowing for a tense reunion), and War Machine to serve as the voice or reason, encouraging T’Challa to cooperate due to imminent threat of Thanos.

Giovani Ribisi as Everett Ross

Giovani Ribisi is another superb actor who was great in his small turn in Selma, and this gives him a chance to reteam with Duvernay.

It’s likely most people in the MCU don’t know much about Wakanda, and perhaps have never even heard of it — it was clearly unfamiliar to Banner, and he’s a pretty smart and educated dude. Everett K. Ross would serve as the Wakandan expert brought into the brief the President and his staff — an academic out of his element in the halls of power of the White House.

Louraine Toussaint as Secretary Dondi Reese

Best known for her role as “Vee” in season 2 of Orange is the New Black, Louraine Toussaint is another Duvernay regular. Dondi Reese was created by Reginald Hudlin as an obvious analogue to Condezella Rice, and she could serve as the more reasonable voice in contrast to Gyrich’s more aggressive perspective.

William Sadler as President Matthew Ellis and Roy McCrerey as President’s Aide

William Sadler played the US President in Iron Man 3, and I like to imagine that Civil War sees him running for releection, with the Superhuman Registration Act being a key part of his platform. Having won re-election, he is intent on making sure superheroes are well regulated and defenses in place should they become a threat, hence his insistence on cooperation with Wakanda and his desire for them to provide Virbarnium, so that the US/Nu-SHIELD (whatever it is Fury set up at the end of Age of Ultron) can have weapons that are able to take out the superheroes and alien threats.

Roy McCrerey also appeared in Iron Man 3, and was listed as “president’s aide.” Clearly he’s a relatively important person because he was sitting at the table with the president on Air Force One, and was the person who urged him not to give him to the Mandarin’s demands. So yeah, let’s bring him back for a bit role. Honestly I included him just so the image would be even and I wouldn’t have just a single image of President Ellis being all lonely.

Will this be the Black Panther Cast we see in 2018?

Honestly? Not very likely — my predictive track record is pretty poor. That’s part of the joy of being a fan of the MCU, seeing how Marvel subverts expectations in both casting and in stories. Fancasting is less about attempting to accurately predict what will happen than engaging with a property you are passionate about.

That said, I do think my picks are pretty good ones! Marvel tends to cast actors with a certain level of fame — they’re known actors, to cinema buffs if not the general public, but not mega star famous. The model has been not cast existing movie stars, but rather transform them into ones. Benedict Cumberbatch is the major exception here, but remember of course that Joaquin Phoenix was their first choice, much more in keeping with their idisoncratic approach. All these people fit that mold. Actors like Denzel Washington, Johnny Depp or Tom Cruise will never join the MCU because they’re already existing movie stars with quotes that Marvel is unwilling to shell out for. These actors all seem to me plausible casting choices. And while I’ve suggested a plot that I think works within the MCU — existing both as its own story while also drawing heavily upon the existing universe — it’s more than likely that the Black Panther film won’t resemble my suggested story in any way.

But I’m sure as hell going to be excited for whatever Marvel serves up. And if Ava is directing it? Than my faith in a superb Black Panther film will be absolute.