In 1992, Wesley Snipes announced plans to star as the lead in a Black Panther film adaptation. Mario Van Peebles and John Singleton were mooted as potential directors but the project stalled when Executive Producer Stan Lee said the scripts weren’t up to scratch.

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In 2008, the MCU launched with the release of Iron Man. Snipes was still in the running play Black Panther until 2009, when personal issues interfered and he was no longer available. In 2011, documentary filmmaker Mark Bailey wrote a script but Marvel didn’t progress it.

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In 2014, Head of Marvel Kevin Feige announced a Black Panther film would be released in 2017, but the character would make his debut in Captain America: Civil War a year later. This led to the unusual process of a lead actor being cast before a director was hired for the film.

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