After curating the soundtrack for this year’s Black Panther, Kendrick Lamar is throwing his hat in the ring to play the villain in Black Panther 2.
As Ryan Coogler’s movie takes another chunk out of the box office for the MCU, comic book fans are obviously looking toward the inevitable sequel in Phase 4. The search for the next Black Panther movie villain may be a long way off yet, but could the singer/songwriter really swap laying down beats for suiting up to take on T’Challa?
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Speaking to BBC Radio 1, the 30-year-old revealed his own aspirations to join the cast of Black Panther 2, but with a very specific role in mind when asked who he would play:
“Come on, I got to now… I really enjoyed Killmonger’s character, just off the simple fact: he was a villain but he came some real, he was dropping them jewels. He was a villain, but he was loved and misunderstood. So if I could, I’d play a Killmonger for sure.”
There is no doubting that Michael B. Jordan’s role as Erik Killmonger helped alleviate the MCU’s villain problem, but do we simply want to see another rehash in the sequel? Either way, Coogler (or whoever) tackles the sequel will have a tough job on their hands to top the rave reviews of Black Panther or match one of the most sympathetic villains we’ve ever seen in a superhero movie yet.
One of the biggest skills of Black Panther was to carefully balance the likes of Killmonger, Ulysses Klaue, and M’Baku as antagonists in the film, but also set the stage for what could come next. Sure, T’Challa can relax on the throne for now, but how much longer until another threat comes to Wakanda – especially now they have revealed their presence to the world? Some fans even enjoyed Jordan’s performance so much, they are holding out for his return with a mythical resurrection of Killmonger for the sequel. As for who else could come from the comics to face off against Black Panther next time, there are more than a few plausible options.
We already have our predictions of who’s next in line to threaten Wakanda. Winston Duke’ hilarious M’Baku could have an expanded role to take on the darker side of his Man-Ape persona, while Lupita Nyong’o has said she is more than happy to embrace Nakia’s comic book storyline of being a villain. Elsewhere, we know that Coogler wanted to introduce Kraven the Hunter, so he could be looking to mount T’Challa’s head on his wall. In a movie that had such a focus on African American actors, it isn’t completely mad to imagine Lamar as Kraven if the situation ever arose.
Although a sequel is yet to be officially greenlit, an impressive box office haul and currently ranking as the third highest-grossing MCU entry, it dead certain that T’Challa will get another standalone film to sink his claws into. Given that Lamar helped craft the stellar soundtrack – and with Black Panther topping the Billboard Top 200 – we could easily see him return too. As for his part as a Killmonger-esque supervillain? Maybe we should save that one for Black Panther 3, Kendrick?
More: 15 Characters You Didn’t Know Were Black Panther
Source: BBC Radio 1
- Avengers: Infinity War / The Avengers 3 release date: May 4, 2018
- Ant-Man & The Wasp release date: Jul 6, 2018
- Captain Marvel release date: Mar 8, 2019
- The Avengers 4 / Untitled Avengers Movie release date: May 3, 2019
- Untitled Spider-Man: Homecoming Sequel release date: Jul 5, 2019
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