‘Black Panther’ Movie Adds ‘The People v. O.J.’s Sterling K. Brown
Production on Black Panther, the first Marvel superhero movie with a black lead and a primarily black cast, is beginning later this month, and one last-minute addition has officially joined the cast: Sterling K. Brown will be playing N’Jobu, who has only been described as “a figure from T’Challa’s past.”
Brown announced the good news on his Twitter account today:
Brown recently won an Emmy for his performance as lawyer Christopher Darden on The People v. O.J. Simpson so he’ll probably feel right at home within the immensely-talented cast that includes Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Michael B. Jordan, Forest Whitaker, Danai Gurira, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, and Florence Kasumba.
His turn on O.J. was one of the series’ best performances, and it’s great news for those of us who were hugely excited for Black Panther already. This will be Marvel’s first movie post-Iron Man with a) a black protagonist, and b) more than two or three main characters of color. And there’s also nothing online that I can find about “N’Jobu,” so I’m pretty sure he’s a new character created just for the movie. Which means Marvel is using this film to further flesh out the Black Panther universe. The comics are already receiving high acclaim, with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ recent run one of the most popular comic series Marvel has sold. It’s heartening to see Marvel finally taking major steps to bring more diversity into the world of superheroes. We certainly have high hopes for Black Panther.
Black Panther opens in theaters February 18, 2018.