Anthony Mackie (Falcon) came into the MCU thinking he was going to be Black Panther

He’s finally made it big in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but Anthony Mackie had a very different idea when he joined the all-star cast. Known for playing the Falcon in numerous films and the Falcon & The Winter Soldier series, Mackie initially thought he would be Black Panther.

“I had been contacting Marvel a lot about Black Panther,” Mackie says. “I had written them letters. I was trying to find a way to make them make Black Panther. And I wanted to be Black Panther because growing up I f*cking loved Black Panther.”

However, as we know, the story ended very differently, and he ended up donning the Falcon suit and wings to play his alter ego, Sam Wilson.

“I’ll never forget Joe Russo - co-director of Avengers - said, ‘Listen, so we’re doing this movie. We want you to be in it. We can’t say what character you’re playing or who else is going to be in it. Would you do it?’ And that was it.” he concludes, making it clear that he took on the role of Falcon virtually blind.

A twist in the script he was not expecting

“I was like, ‘You know what, I like y’all dudes. I’ll do it. I’ll go on this ride with you. What other major comic book figure has enough of a presence to have his own movie?” the actor continues. “So when they hit me up and they were like, ‘Yo, so it’s Sam Wilson,’ I’m like, ‘Really?’”

Everything happened as we know, and that is that the sadly deceased Chadwick Boseman ended up becoming Black Panther, having a tribute with honors in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Mackie did not fare too badly though, as he will be the new Captain America in Captain America: Brave New World, after the name change, as the movie was originally called New World Order.

Mackie will be joined in the character’s fourth film by none other than Harrison Ford as General Ross, Liv Tyler as his daughter, Betty Ross, and Tim Blake Nelson as the villain, The Leader.

Source | Inverse