Will John Boyega Be The Next To Join Black Panther?
The rumour mill says... maybe.
It's time to get even more over-excited about Black Panther if some of the Internet rumour-mongers are to be believed.
Having posted on his Snapchat that he was headed to a meeting, John Boyega became the latest person to be linked to the increasingly excellent Black Panther cast. It turned out - thanks to eagle eyed detractors - that Boyega's meeting was taking place at his agency, rather than at Marvel Towers, as soon were enthusiastically claiming.
BUT, there's more.
Boyega is only currently following 255 people on his Twitter and the latest to join that auspicious minority is one Kevin Feige. Surely that's enough to suggest there might be something rumbling?
To assume Boyega is about to join the only Marvel film with a predominantly black cast is a little presumptive, but he would fit with the calibre of talent being hoovered up by Ryan Coogler's cast. And while it's all probably wishful thinking at this stage, a movie combining the exceptional talents of Boyega, Lupita Nyong'o, Chadwick Boseman and Michael B Jordan is too great an opportunity not to ship.
To be fair, Boyega has previous with fans jumping to conclusions about him and the Black Panther movie. Back in 2014, he tweeted about apparently reading a Civil War comic, and set tongues wagging...
If he didn't want people to jump to conclusions, he should have revised the way he said that. Fans and the media inevitably immediately put two and two together and got Wakanda, but then Boyega subsequently retweeted the following:
Director Coogler meanwhile has been talking about how Black Panther will be his most personal movie to date. In an interview with FastCompany, he said:
"Its a specific challenge. What Marvels doing, and what you see a lot of studios doing now that Marvel has done it so successfully, is making content that exists in a particular universe, where the characters tie in and crossover, and I think thats a great creative challenge to meto make this movie as personal as possible. Its going to be my most personal movie to date, which is crazy to say, but its completely the case. Im obsessed with this character and this story right now, and I think its going to be very unique and still fit into the overall narrative that theyre establishing."
That should go some way to challenging the idea that Marvel have no interest in directors coming in with their own vision. Though hopefully for Coogler's sake, he's willing to take direction on fitting the movie in with the rest of the MCU (or he'll find himself Edgar Wrighted out of the door).
Are you happy with the direction Black Panther is currently heading in? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.