Wesley Snipes Reveals Trying to Make a 'Black Panther' Movie 20 Years Ago
Marvel's "Black Panther" is set to arrive in a couple of weeks, and the hype around it just grew stronger following the world premiere. Earlier this week, Wesley Snipes revealed that he also tried making a "Black Panther" movie in the 1990s, but the project never saw the light of the day.
Snipes, who is set to star in "Blade," revealed that he planned on making a movie based on T'Challa/Black Panther some two decades ago. However, he admitted that coming up with a movie about a superhero most people had never heard of was such a struggle for him, so it ultimately never came to be. Despite that, he said he's excited about Marvel's upcoming "Black Panther" movie.
"I think 'Black Panther' spoke to me because he was noble, and he was the antithesis of the stereotypes presented and portrayed about Africans, African history and the great kingdoms of Africa. It had cultural significance, social significance. It was something that the black community and the white community hadn't seen before," Snipes told The Hollywood Reporter.
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According to former Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, it was hard to come up with a "Black Panther" movie at the time because that meant having to compete with Warner Bros., which was also producing movies on more popular superheroes like Superman and Batman. "Our major competitor was owned by Warners, and they were coming out with Superman movies and Batman movies... We were out there struggling," he said.
Snipes said they had to go through different scripts and different director options, including Mario Van Peebles and John Singleton. Unfortunately, their visions were not compatible with the "Black Panther" movie. Although the project never came to be, Snipes said he's glad they didn't pursue any of those visions, because that would have been the wrong thing to do with a project as rich as "Black Panther."
"Black Panther" is set for release on Feb. 16.
