Is THE BLACK PANTHER Movie Finally Happening?

Latino Review's El Mayimbe - who's just about the most scary-reliable movie news scooper out there right now, sez YES.

No official confirmation from Marvel/Disney yet, but these guys have been spot-on pretty-much every time they've made a call. If so, this will mark the first Marvel Studios production to feature a minority lead and will (unless I'm forgetting someone?) be the first comic-based film to star a black superhero since "Blade" back in 98.

More substantially, it's a terrific character with tons of cinematic potential:


I don't know how high awareness of the character is outside established comic fandom, but The Black Panther is kind of a big deal: The first black superhero in modern/mainstream comics, and also the first to hail (natively) from Africa.

Shortest possible version: Remember Eddie Murphy in "Coming to America?" He's that guy, if he was also Batman. Panther's real name is T'Challa, and he's the King of an isolated Sub-Saharan African nation called Wakanda; which maintains a surface-level facade of being a "primitive" jungle tribe but is actually a technologically-advanced super-civilization hidden deep underground. In the comics-proper, Wakanda sustains/defends itself primarily as the world's principal source of Vibranium - the super-special metal that Captain America's shield is made of.

The casting on this will be really interesting - the mega-success of The Avengers and the automatic high-profile that will come from being the first nonwhite member of what is now Hollywood's number-one "superhero factory" makes this instantly the biggest role specifically calling for a black male lead in Hollywood right now. Penny-pinching Marvel will almost certainly want to with a fresh face, but you can bet that LOT'S of established names are throwing their hats in as well.

Of less interest but still probably amusing-as-hell: The innevitable Fox News etc. freakout over the name (which predates the 1970s activist organization) and the positioning of an African leader as a superhero. This won't come out until well after the election, of course, but don't expect that to stop the fun...