Anthony Mackie Wrote Letters Asking to Play Black Panther, Joined Marvel Not Knowing It Was for the Falcon Instead: ‘I’m Like, Really?’

Anthony Mackie revealed in a new interview with Inverse that he wrote Marvel Studios multiple letters asking to play Black Panther before he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sam Wilson a.k.a. the Falcon. Mackie figured the only prominent Black superhero Marvel might develop a movie for is Black Panther, so he put all his cards on playing TChalla.

I had been contacting Marvel a lot about Black Panther, Mackie 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 landed a meeting with longtime Marvel producer Nate Moore and directors Joe and Anthony Russo, who were developing Captain America: The Winter Solider at the time. No one told Mackie what part they were meeting him for at the time, so he just presumed it was for Black Panther.

Ill never forget, Joe Russo said, Listen, so were doing this movie. We want you to be in it. We cant say what character youre playing or who else is going to be in it. Would you do it? And that was it, Mackie remembered. I was like, You know what, I like yall dudes. Ill do it. Ill go on this ride with you.

When the offer to join the MCU came through, Mackie was shocked it was for the Falcon instead of for Black Panther.

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 its Sam Wilson, Im like, Really?

Marvel ended up making its own Black Panther movie with the late Chadwick Boseman in the role. Mackie debuted as Falcon in 2014s The Winter Soldier and went on to reprise the character in tentpoles such as Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). He then got his own Disney+ series, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, which set up his character as the new Captain America. Wilson will star in the upcoming Marvel movie, Captain America: Brave New World, which is in production in Atlanta.

Theres a huge amount of pressure, Mackie told Inverse about leading his own Marvel movie for the first time. You throw my dumb ass in the water, and youre like, Swim. Im like, Shit. But at the same time, its all in the state of mind. Ive been given a great cast. Ive been given a great group of people who Ive worked with before.

One person who knows Mackie can lead a Marvel movie is Chris Evans, the former Captain America actor who gave up the shield at the end of Endgame.

His energy and his versatility. Both as a person and as an actor, Evans said. Ive never seen him tired, and theres nothing he cant do. Hes a true Renaissance man.

Captain America: Brave New World is set for release on May 3, 2024.