Eko wants Black Panther

I apologize for using his “Lost” name in the title, but “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje” would have used up the entire character limit by itself. In any case, the “Oz,” “Lost” and soon-to-be G.I. JOE vet recently talked with MTV about the possibility of donning the mask to play Marvel’s African superhero.

“We’re talking to Marvel about ‘Black Panther…This is the first round, so you know, hopefully they’ll look at ‘G.I. Joe’ and see the potential. But it’s about time we have a black superhero, isn’t it?”

“He’s from a fictional village in Africa and the timing is so right for that kind of character to come through,” he said. “And while I’m in my prime, this is the time. We’ve got [U.S. President Barack] Obama, now we need something on screen to represent, so… ‘Panther,’ man.”

Honestly, I can’t say I know a whole hell of a lot about Black Panther and his back story, but this all sounds pretty good to me. I think it is about time for a black superhero (since HANCOCK failed to impress anyone) and Akinnuoye-Agbaje would seem to be the perfect casting choice for this role.

Sure, we’ve got Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury movie down the road, and allegedly there’s a Luke Cage project somewhere in the works, but a Black Panther film would be a pretty radical departure from anything we’ve seen before in the superhero genre, and I’m definitely interested in hearing more.