Black Panther

Double post I know, but what do you guys think of Lee Thompson Young◊ for T'Challa?

edited 8th Jun '12 1:47:45 AM by AtomJames

Not bad, could work.

I know he was brought up in the Marvel thread, but I thought I'd put forward Chiwetel Ejiofor◊. He seems to be on a lot of people's minds, so I hope he has a real chance at getting it.

edited 8th Jun '12 4:19:16 PM by HopelessSituationWarrior

I loved him as The Operative, so yeah he's a great choice.

Regarding black panther working for a government team. I think that the trend will be for the Avengers to move out of their government origins, after all the events at the end of the movie and what not. I think Tony is looking to make the Avengers into something without such ties.

What concerns me more is that Avengers was too close to have too many characters (in fact, arguably Hawk Eye was already too useless) So I really hope that if they plan to extend the team size, they remove some members (Looking at you, Hawk Eye) before doing anything.

On the topic of Ghost Rider, there's more differences between Hulk and Ghost Rider than just being in the Avengers or not. Hulk's backstory is science, and his powers are just being really strong. Ghost Rider's backstory is a Deal with the Devil and his powers are all based around Hell. To moderate or liberal parents, it's obvious who's more kid friendly.

On the other hand, with hardcore Christian parents, they're just as bad as one another.

edited 8th Jun '12 5:30:57 PM by BaronofBarons

^^ It'd be interesting if they didn't make Panther an official member of the Avengers, but rather perhaps a major benefactor who occasionally assists when the issue involves Wakanda. It would be a nice evolution of Wakanda becoming involved in international affairs - instead of becoming an Avenger, T'Challa becomes involved in SHIELD affairs in general.

That...wasn't very funny.

Regardless, Ghost Rider doesn't come across as a team player anyway, and there are much more important people to get on the Avengers first, like Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Vision, Ant-Man, Wasp, etc.

The only Ghost Rider who made the deal with the Devil is Blaze though, there are plenty of options to choose from(the Ultimate Marvel team also tried to fight Ghost Rider, with equally unimpressive result but moving on)

So the Avengers are a S.H.I.E.L.D. summon now? That's still a problem. They can't go in Wakanda saying "Panther we need you" and just take Panther, likely he loans them a flying tank or some Vibro-armor-technobablechips-yougettheidea at best if he doesn't tell them to piss off. They can't get ahead of his army like they did with Ross because he's supposed to superior, the African Dr. Doom. Thor's at least the traditional defender of Midgard and Namor is one of Atlantis people who breathe air. Panther doesn't have those luxuries if you're a writer.

I suppose it could work temporarily, he's studying abroad while still a prince, but seeing how he isn't being introduced in the Avengers movie... it could be like the time he invited the Fantastic Four to his country and then defeated them single handily to posture to his people, then have them make up and team up, but that seems a little convoluted for a 2 hour piece.

No, it may not have the exact problem as the comic, but it still has problems and just because Panther was an Avenger in comics doesn't mean it was good times. With the possible exception of Don Mc Gregor, most of than Panther works between the Jack Kirby-Christopher Priest gap are kind of low points, including most of his Avenger time.

You guys are aware that BP originally joined the Avengers in order to spy on it right? Who watches the watchmen kinda thing. We are dealing with Marvel's Guile Hero after all.

Actually yes, and that still seems like the kind of thing you'd appoint a soldier or agent to do when you're King of a powerful country in a state of schism and it is also unambitious. Why stop at the Avengers? Why not go straight to the source?

Why would he bother with the US? The Avengers have several people on the team that any military would be hard-pressed to deal with. And in the comics they're not governed by any other authority, IIRC. Makes sense for Panther to want to watch them.

You know what would be kinda cool? DC comics did a run where someone managed to get hold of Batman's contingency plans for dealing with other League members and used them against him and the League. I wouldn't mind seeing something similar happen with Panther.

edited 8th Jun '12 7:49:21 PM by CorrTerek

Uh, getting government approval was one of the comic team's first real problems, and the reason Hulk got mad and quit(well one of them, the real reason is because he wasn't a good fit in the first place). What helped them get that approval, public support after discovering Captain America(and you know, losing the failed gamma bomb that became the gone horribly wrong unstoppable person of mass destruction called Hulk).

In fact, in Panther's own book Everett K. Ross, his confidant in all things United States discusses how the government accepts village idiots with repulsion beams while building giant robots to attack the guys at a private school.(though he admits mutants terrify him later). Of course, that also makes Firestar, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver's presence on the team even stranger, but that's another can of worms entirely.

It would be cool if they could get either Morgan Freeman or James Earl Jones as King T'Chaka.

Lol, the first person I thought of as T'Chaka was James Earl Jones. For obvious reasons.

But it might be too "in-jokey."

Morgan Freeman would be pretty damn sweet. He's played God twice already. Bout time he played a superhero.

Djimon Hounsou◊ would be the best pick. He's of West African descent and he's voicing the Black Panther in the cartoon.

As for the plot, I've always regarded the best origin story to be the episode of the 1994 Fantastic Four cartoon; he tricked the F4 into coming to Wakanda, then separated them and used a variety of traps to lay the smackdown on them—until they regrouped and defeated him. Then T'Challa explained his origin & how Klaw killed his father and how he trained to get his revenge. He and the 4 worked together to tackle Klaw as a team and the Panther chose to remain a superhero. So really the movie would be a 3rd Fantastic Four film that served as the pilot to the Black Panther film.

Christopher Priest's run on the book was one of the absolute best but it's not an origin story and the plot would be way too thick to foist on the non-comic reading viewing public.

The big problem with Hounsou is that he's nearly 50. Other than that, he'd be great.

Edit: Thought you meant T'Challa. Disregard everything I said.

edited 13th Jun '12 3:54:18 PM by HopelessSituationWarrior

So, you're saying he's too young to play T'Chalka? I could see a guy younger than fifty still having an of age son ready to become king.

I think HSW got mixed up and assumed that DN wanted Hounsou to play T'Challa. Or at least I'm guessing that's what's happening. Because the way I see it "nearing 50" is fine enough for a king that's mainly there to be at the other end of a sound gun (or whatever the hell that dish thing on Klaw's arm is).

Hounsou would make for a badass T'Chanka.

Crap, my bad. Yeah, I thought DN meant T'Challa, I need to pay more attention. Hounsou would be great as T'Chaka, though.

edited 13th Jun '12 3:54:51 PM by HopelessSituationWarrior

My one request for this movie is to keep Christopher Priest far away from it. Black Panther has a lot of potential to be an interesting film franchise (and especially feels a niche of finally establishing a "unique" black superhero), but Priest has a rather obnoxious habit of turning Panther into a Marty Stu.

Is this about the Soap Opera Disease head injury being used to make him more sympathetic? Is it about having him meet Storm as a child, even though he's royalty, she was a street rat and they were from different nations? Changing his battle with Captain America from "stalemate" to "narrow victory" even though Cap is super human and Panther isn't?(forgetting or ignoring "Super Soldier" means "Super human" is painfully common among modern Marvel writers)

Christopher Priest's approach to Panther was better than most's, he tried to take the character back to the way he was under Jack Kirby and considering it wasn't even a project he wanted he did a pretty good job...unlike Guggenheim did with Blade. I don't really expect Priest to be on the project, but I do expect the writers to do at least do as much of a background check as him.

I would ten million times rather have Priest writing the script and screenplay, than have Hudlin anywhere in the same *state* as the production. Whatever sins Priest might have pale into insignificance beside any random page of Hudlin's dreck.