Happyninja42 said:
So since it's trending so much on the site right now, I thought I'd drop a thread to let us fan out over which actor should play the Black Panther.
Who would you like to see play him?
I think my favorite choice would be Idris Elba, but that might be problematic since he's currently playing Heimdall.
I think he's got the right "regal" presence to play a king, as well as the acting chops to be a badass hero type.
Other ideas?
capcha: tickle the ivories
....ebony and ivory? Live together in perfect, harmony!! hmmm
I had the same thought, which is actually part of why I was irritated that they used him for Heimdall... in combination with the fact that I think characters should look as close to their comic counterparts as possible.
See, one of the big problems with ethnicity swapping is it generates short term hype, but then once you associate people with specific roles (especially if they become controversial) it ties your hands. There are decent numbers of black characters in comics who should receive a good actor at the helm, and right now they just wasted one of the top prospects for a leading role as a black super hero for some quick PC controversy.
Most of my ideal choices are sadly too old to play the role, or associated with other characters. He's too old now but I thought it would be kind of amusing to have Eddie Murphy play "straight" for once and take on the role of Black Panther, and make a sort of meta joke about his character from "Coming To America".
Of course then again, when push comes to shove I tend to mostly wind up thinking body builders and pro wrestlers are the best choices physically for most characters, but they are never selected. For example I honestly think "Triple H" looks pretty much like Thor IRL, Hemmsworth did the job well, but early on when it was speculative from a purely physical sense he pretty much was the character come to life.
For BP they might want to actually use an an unknown though, some black child actor that's growing up if they can find one or whatever. Not sold on his acting but maybe someone like Will Smith's son (as crazy as he can be). The reason why is that if they want to do an origin story here, an older guy being BP might be more kingly but it also wouldn't work for an origin where he's supposed to be taking this mantle as a young man, in his physical prime. See, I like Idris for an established Black Panther, but that would generally be if they just threw him out, fully developed, and acted like he was always there somewhere. However with the concepts involved where they have to introduce the concept of Wakanda, various supporting characters, etc... that might not work, unless they plan to do it retroactively through flash backs or whatever.
Of course after how they ruined The Mandarin (I know some people liked it, but I didn't, since he's such a classic bad guy) who knows what they are going to do with Black Panther. For all I know they will say there is no Black Panther and it's all a marketing gimmick for the Wakanda vibranium cartel, he'll show up in the background a few times and talk big, while the supporting characters do everything, then eventually the mask will come off and you'll find out it was Justin Bieber... playing himself as a cameo, Wakanda hired The Beeb to be the face of their company so they could sell vibranium jewelry to all the girls who think he's hot. He'll do a musical number, and then after the credits will be a pitch for his new CD. It will be every bit as much Black Panther as Ben Kingsley was The Mandarin.
