Captain America's Anthony Mackie originally wanted Black Panther role
Captain America star Anthony Mackie has revealed he originally hoped to land the role of T'Challa/Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
While he is well known as Sam Wilson/Falcon/Captain America, the actor has opened up about initially setting his sights on another MCU role.
“I had been contacting Marvel a lot about Black Panther,” he told Inverse. “I had written them letters. I was trying to find a way to make them make Black Panther. And I wanted to be Black Panther because growing up I f**king loved Black Panther.”
Related: What's happening in Marvel Phase 5? All the MCU releases coming up
Mackie managed to land a meeting with Marvel producer Nate Moore and Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, which he had hoped would lead to being cast as T'Challa.
“I’ll never forget, Joe Russo said, ‘Listen, so we’re doing this movie. We want you to be in it. We can’t say what character you’re playing or who else is going to be in it. Would you do it?’ And that was it,” he recalled.
“I was like, ‘You know what, I like y’all dudes. I’ll do it. I’ll go on this ride with you’.”
Related: Black Panther's Chadwick Boseman set for posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame star
However, he wasn't expecting to be cast as Sam Wilson, Mackie adding: “What other major comic book figure has enough of a presence to have his own movie? So when they hit me up and they were like, ‘Yo, so it’s Sam Wilson’, I’m like, ‘Really?’”
In the end, the late Chadwick Boseman was cast as T'Challa, appearing across four movies including 2018's Black Panther.
Mackie, meanwhile, is set to return as Sam Wilson once again in his own standalone Captain America movie, Brave New World, having inherited the title from Steve Rogers (Chris Evans).
Captain America: Brave New World is set for release on August 26, 2024. Meanwhile, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is streaming exclusively on Disney+.
You Might Also Like
