Here's a bit of fun trivia for you: Back in the early 1990s, Wesley Snipes was spearheading an effort to get a Black Panther movie after he was approached by Marvel. Now, this was years before he starred in Blade, which means that Snipes' involvement with the project provides plenty of great "What if?" material to think about. While Snipes has opened up about his efforts to get a Black Panther movie made in the past, we couldn't resist asking him about it while discussing his new movie, Coming 2 America, with Collider's own Steven Weintraub.
Just to refresh your memory: Back in the early '90s, Marvel was in dire straits. The once-revered comics company was facing extinction and had laid zero groundwork for a kind of thriving cinematic universe like the MCU of today. Snipes, who was on a serious career hot streak at the time with movies like New Jack City, Jungle Fever, and White Men Can't Jump, would have been a natural choice for Marvel when searching out stars to help breathe new life in Marvel by taking one of the company's characters from page to screen.
With this in mind, we asked Snipes about his Black Panther '90s movie. The Coming 2 America star began by confirming, "You got good research. Bravo, bravo. That is absolutely true, and we had three scripts, three versions of scripts written when we held the rights to Black Panther. That was in the early '90s. Maybe '92, '93, '94, in that area somewhere."
But Snipes also acknowledged the many roadblocks he and his team hit while trying to get the project off the ground. It wasn't just that his Black Panther movie had multiple script drafts written or that he'd met with directors but couldn't find the right fit. It was also the fact that making a Black Panther movie that could stand on its own two legs as a superhero movie felt like a steep hill to climb. Snipes continued,
We didn't have the technology we have now. Pixar didn't exist. None of the things, the CGI capabilities that we have now existed, and you know, people... Even the thought of the name "Black Panther" in the zeitgeist of Hollywood had a reference to the national revolutionary group versus the comic book. So it was hard to make. Long story long, we didn't end up making it, the rights went back, converted back, and then 'Blade' came along. [I] rocked with that.
Snipes may not have played Black Panther, but his performance in Blade, as well as the movie itself, helped get Marvel back on track. So, in a way, Snipes' work with Marvel is still pivotal to both his career and the eventual prominence of the comic book company to this day. And even though he didn't play Black Panther, he did give his complete support for Ryan Coogler's 2018 movie starring the late Chadwick Boseman. In 2018, he told The Hollywood Reporter in part, "Even though I am not a part of this particular project, I support it 1,000 percent, and I am absolutely convinced that it will be a catalyst for change and open other doors and other opportunities," and going on to say, "We need that kind of diversity and different flavor now," words which still ring true today but tie back to Snipes' pivotal efforts to affect change nearly 30 years ago.
Coming 2 America will be released on Amazon Prime Video on March 5.