Denzel Washington: It’s Fitting That He’ll Be In The Next ‘Black Panther’
While speaking to Australia’s Today show about Gladiator II, Denzel Washington dropped a mind-blowing bit of information. He said that Ryan Coogler is writing a role for him in the third Black Panther film. He was discussing his next few projects during the interview. He has a few lined up, and he noted that he is about to reprise a non-Marvel role that he first played nearly 50 years ago.
“I played Othello at 22. I am about to play Othello at 70,” he said. Washington will play the title role in Othello on Broadway, which opens February 24, 2025. “After that, I am playing Hannibal,” he said, referring to a still-untitled upcoming Netflix film by Antoine Fuqua where he’ll play Carthaginian General Hannibal.
“After that, I’ve been talking to Steve McQueen about a film. After that, Ryan Coogler is writing a part for me in the next Black Panther. After that, I’m going to do the film Othello. After that, I’m going to do King Lear. After that, I’m going to retire.”
Washington’s Black Panther role hadn’t yet been announced. But it’s fitting that he’ll be part of the story, as he had a big role in original Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman’s career. In a speech Boseman made before Washington received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, Boseman said, “Many of you already know the story that Mr. Washington, when asked by Phylicia Rashad to join her in assisting nine theater students from Howard University who had been accepted to a summer acting program at the British Academy of Dramatic Acting in Oxford, gracefully and privately agreed to contribute.”
Their bond didn’t end there. Washington produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was Boseman’s final acting role. Boseman was already diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the time, but few people knew about it. Washington was unaware of the actor’s condition. But as he told CBS Sunday Morning, “Certain members of his team knew. His wife was there. They weren’t even married yet. And I used to watch how she took care of him, and I actually said to him, I said, ‘Man, you know, you need to put a ring on that finger.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, she loves that guy.’ You know, but I didn’t know what we know now.” The couple were married in secret, which his family only confirmed when they announced his death in August of 2020 .
There’s no word as to when the next Black Panther will be out; it has not yet been announced by Marvel Studios.
