MCU Producer Says We Might Get Denzel in ‘Black Panther 3’ as a Treat

We are three years away from the twentieth anniversary of Iron Man. The film was a global phenomenon that launched a massive franchise. It’s so huge that it has spent the better part of two decades snatching up every actor who has dared grace a silver screen. Old and new, inexperienced and award-winning, few have been spared from the MCU’s large bank account (which doesn’t sound so bad when you put it that way). They got Robert Redford, for Christ’s sake! Still, one actor has managed to evade their grasp. He is an actor who some would call the greatest of all time. He is Denzel Washington.

Denzel’s bonafides are unlike any other. He has made plenty of “prestige” pictures. I once saw him command a sold-out theater by simply pulling a chair into center stage, sitting down, and talking. His charm and charisma have graced genres of all kinds. If the worst day fishing is better than the best day working, then the worst film with Denzel is better than the best film without Denzel (take THAT, Spotlight). Denzel doesn’t need the MCU. Unless, of course, he told a bunch of reporters that he planned to appear in a film that is super early in development so he could work with a director he likes. But what are the odds of that?

They’re good! The famed actor took a moment while promoting Gladiator 2 to say he has eyes on retirement. But before he hangs up his comedy and tragedy masks, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for him in Black Panther 3. Oh! Marvel likes to keep some of its casting close to the vest until a movie is closer to ready to go (unless you’re Mahershala Ali). The idea that Denzel just came out and said he’s in the movie without it being announced is very funny (and an exquisite show of power). Now, it feels like one of the producers has been forced into confirming the news.

Nate Moore, a producer on the new Captain America film, was asked by Screenrant about Denzel’s trip to Wakanda and who he would play, and Moore did not try to sidestep the question. “If that manifests, which we’re gonna try, I think it will probably be somebody from canon,” he explained. “Who that is, is early days. We honestly haven’t had really substantive creative conversations with Ryan, mostly because he’s finishing his film Sinners, which is gonna come out this year and is gonna be great. So again it’s too early to say, but obviously if an actor of the caliber of Denzel Washington wants in, we’re gonna figure out a way to make that happen.”

That whole statement reads like Moore saying, “I didn’t want to have to talk about this yet, but yes, we would love to have one of the greatest living actors.” I honestly do not care who Denzel plays. He can be anyone, and the part will immediately be given some legitimacy from his presence. I didn’t love Black Panther 2, but it was also an impossible task coupled with MCU “we have to set up two movies and a TV show” nonsense. But the first film was a cultural event and Ryan Coogler is a phenomenal director. I’m excited about this, but not as excited as Dustin Rowles.

Not to give you guys too much of a peek behind the curtain, but Dustin practically exploded with glee when I brought this story to the Pajiba Slack last night. “FINALLY,” he wrote in all caps, adding a thumbs-up emoji to his comment. I thought that was fine enough, but he continued. “This is the kind of legitimacy Denzel NEEDS,” Dustin told us. It was sweet until he started asking where he could get a screen-printed shirt with Denzel beneath the Black Panther 3 logo and he kept writing “We are EATING,” over and over. The man is excited!