- Anthony Mackie told Inverse that he originally wanted to play Black Panther in the Marvel movies.
- The Falcon actor said that he wrote numerous letters to Marvel Studios to cast him in the role.
"Captain America" star Anthony Mackie said that he wrote numerous letters asking Marvel Studios to cast him as Black Panther before he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Mackie is known for playing the Falcon, who was introduced in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" as a sidekick to Chris Evans' titular superhero.
However, Mackie recently told Inverse that before he was cast as former veteran Sam Wilson/Falcon, he had his sights set on another Black Marvel hero, the king of Wakanda, T'Challa.
"I had been contacting Marvel a lot about Black Panther," he said. "I had written them letters. I was trying to find a way to make them make Black Panther. And I wanted to be Black Panther because growing up I fucking loved Black Panther."
Mackie said that the studio eventually called his manager to set up a meeting between the "8 Mile" actor, Marvel producer Nate Moore, and directors Joe and Anthony Russo.
"I'll never forget, Joe Russo said, 'Listen, so we're doing this movie. We want you to be in it. We can't say what character you're playing or who else is going to be in it. Would you do it?' And that was it," Mackie recalled. "I was like, 'You know what, I like y'all dudes. I'll do it. I'll go on this ride with you.'"
Mackie added that he only found out a few weeks later that he was being cast as the Falcon, and not Black Panther, the role he assumed he was going to play.
"What other major comic book figure has enough of a presence to have his own movie?" Mackie said. "So when they hit me up and they were like, 'Yo, so it's Sam Wilson,' I'm like, 'Really?'"
Chadwick Boseman was eventually cast as T'Challa, but the mantle of Black Panther was passed on to his costar Letitia Wright in last year's "Black Panther" sequel, "Wakanda Forever," after Boseman died of cancer in 2020.
Now, after appearing in six movies and a Disney+ series, Mackie is about to lead his own Marvel movie as the new Captain America, which the 44-year-old actor said is a "huge amount of pressure."
The movie was originally titled "Captain America: New World Order," but recently changed to"Captain America: Brave New World." Mackie told Inverse that he was not made aware of why Marvel changed the title.