Daniel Kaluuya Might Star In A Different Black Panther Movie (Not 'Black Panther 2')

Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya, who played W'Kabi in Marvel Studios' mega-hit superhero film Black Panther, may soon star in a different type of Black Panther movie for Ryan Coogler.

Kaluuya and his fellow Get Out actor Lakeith Stanfield are in talks to star in Jesus Was My Homeboy, a drama that tells the true story of Fred Hampton, a Black Panther revolutionary and activist who was assassinated in 1969. Coogler is set to produce, and you can learn more about the new project below.

The Hollywood Reporter brings news about Jesus Was My Homeboy, which Coogler is producing for Warner Bros. Shaka King (High Maintenance, People of Earth, Newlyweeds) will direct and produce from a script he wrote with Will Berson, who has writing credits on Scrubs and The Mighty B!

Assuming the deals are eventually worked out, Kaluuya will play Fred Hampton, an Illinois-born honors student who was active in the NAACP, brokered a non-aggression pact between two of Chicago's gangs, coined the phrase "rainbow coalition," and rose to prominence in the Black Panther Party on both the state and national level. Hampton was assassinated by the FBI and the Chicago Police Department at age 21 during a raid on his apartment.

Stanfield will play William O'Neal, a car thief who had his charges dropped by becoming an FBI informant who worked his way into the Black Panthers, eventually becoming Hampton's bodyguard and turning over a detailed layout of Hampton's apartment to the authorities, which ultimately contributed to Hampton's assassination. This film is said to "look at the rise and death of Hampton through O'Neal's perspective."

Zinzi Coogler, Kim Roth, Poppy Hanks, and Searching co-writer and producer Sev Ohanian are executive producing.

Hampton was said to be a charismatic guy with "substantial oratorical gifts," and it seems like Kaluuya should be able to do Hampton justice on the big screen. The English actor has shown an extensive range in projects like Skins, Sicario, Widows, and yes, Black Panther, and playing a gifted public speaker should be no problem for him. (He delivered a big monologue in the heartbreaking Black Mirror episode he starred in back in 2011, "Fifteen Million Merits.") Stanfield has proven himself to be an eccentric, magnetic performer in things like Atlanta and Sorry to Bother You, and I'm excited to see these two actors reunite for the first time on screen since Get Out in 2017.