Sadly, neither are Steve Buschemi. But we won’t hold that against them—especially not Michael K. Williams (right), who has pretty much the best idea for a Black Panther casting choice ever.
First up: Shea Wigham, who plays Elias “Eli” Thompson in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, has been cast in the role of SSR Chief Roger Dooley. According to the official character descriptions that originally popped up on Film Divider in Jult, he “is a hardworking, principled older man and Peggy’s boss. As you might expect, he’s bothered by ongoing problems in his personal life as well as the challenges of his day job.” He’ll be joining a stellar cast that already includes Hayley Atwell, Chad Michael Murray.Enver Gjokaj, and James D’arcy.
But he’s not the first Boardwalk Empire alum to be cast in a Marvel property; you just probably don’t remember the other time because it’s from The Incredible Hulk. Long before Disney bought Marvel, Michael K. Williams—yup, The Wire‘s Omar Little— was given a small role alongside the enormous green rage monster during the final climax of the film where Harlem gets… um, broken. He explained the experience to Cinema Blend yesterday:
“It was actually a scene that got cut out[…]Â I come out the building. You know, I scream. And then I’m running with everybody else and then all of a sudden, I get stuck between the Hulk and the Abomination. And I’m like, ‘Holy shit, what am I going to do? Everybody calm down. Stop messing up my streets. Why don’t you go to like Connecticut? And fight over there! Why are you in Harlem?’ And then finally the Abomination is getting really mad, and I’m like, ‘You know what, Hulk, I don’t like him. Go kick his ass!’ “
Much to the chagrin of Ed Norton, who created the part just for William in his rewrite of the script, the whole scene was whittled down to this.
But now Williams has his sights on bigger Marvel prizes: namely, he wants to be the Black Panther. “I would definitely bring that quintessential New York City edge. You know, just a little bit of that grit,” he told Cinema Blend. I don’t know about you all, but I would be perfectly willing to overlook that nerdy part of my brain currently screaming “BUT T’CHALLA IS NOT FROM NEW YORK CITY” if Marvel were to cast Omar freakin’ Little as the King of Wakanda. Tell me that would not be incredible.
(via Deadline, Cinema Blend)
- And IIIIIII-EE-YIIIIIIIIII Will Always Love This Winter Soldier Musical Crack!Vid
- Lucy Flawless Brings The BAMF In These First Two Minutes Of The Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Premiere
- Doctor Strange Doesn’t Have a Lead Yet, But It Has a Release Date
Are you following The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
