The 55-year-old actor was announced as the movie’s latest casting on Friday (07Oct16) on Marvel.com, and it was revealed he will play an elder statesman in the fictional city of Wakanda.
Chadwick Boseman plays the titular character of Black Panther, whose alias is T’Challa, the king of the nation of Wakanda. The 39-year-old actor made his debut as the superhero in this year’s (16) Captain America: Civil War, alongside Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr.
Boseman leads a stellar cast in Black Panther that already includes Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o and Danai Gurira, and will be directed by Ryan Coogler.
Whitaker will soon be appearing in the Disney/LucasFilm’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as mysterious bounty hunter Saw Gerrera. The standalone film chronicles events that took place between prequel Revenge of the Sith, and the first of George Lucas’s original films, A New Hope.
And this won’t be the first time the actor, who won an Oscar for his turn as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, has worked with Coogler. Whitaker produced the Creed director’s breakout film Fruitvale Station, which also starred Jordan.
Also new to the Black Panther cast is Daniel Kaluuya, who will play W’Kab, a confidant to T’Challa. Winston Duke has been cast as M’Baku, the leader of a rival Wakandan tribe, while Florence Kasumba is joining as her Captain America: Civil War role Ayo, a member of the Dora Milaje, the bodyguards of the Black Panther.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be in cinemas in December (16), while Black Panther is slated for release in 2018.
