Michael B Jordan Ups The Hype By Signing On To Black Panther
How much better can this film get?
After the excitement for Ryan Coogler's Black Panther was given a massive injection with rumours of Lupita Nyong'o's involvement, it's now going even further off the scale with the announcement that Michael B Jordan has been cast.
According to THR, Jordan will reunite with Coogler (who he first worked under for Fruitvale Station) to play the villain of the piece. Quite what this means for Simon Kinberg's desire to retain his Fantastic Four cast for a better sequel remains to be seen. Obviously lots of actors have played multiple comic book characters, but two active ones at the same time would be mostly unprecedented.
Coogler and Jordan also worked together on Creed to great success, and they've obviously got a good feel for one another. It will be interesting to see how the director coaxes out a villainous performance from his two-time lead.
Marvel have thus far made no comment on the possibility of Jordan playing a villain, but it makes sense that there'd be a Wakandan villain to go alongside the expected return of Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue in some capacity. In terms of possibilities, there are a few, but it would make most sense that Jordan would be playing Erik Kilmonger, the son of a Wakandan who attempted to overthrow T'Chaka and was exiled.
Not that the elder Wakandan leader is out of the picture, his son returning to challenge T'Challa (as he did in the comics) would be a pretty clever story step.
There's clearly going to be a lot going on in Black Panther: he has a romantic element, as suggested by the Nyong'o casting stories, he could have two main villains to face (though Klaue may follow the convention of returning only as a first act element), he could be harbouring underground Avengers, and he has Bucky on ice with General Ross and the world's governments looking for him. Whether we'll see all of that at once is unclear, but what is certain is that this film is getting a hell of a lot more exciting.