Although Denzel Washington hasn’t been found in the Marvel universe yet, he still enjoys watching the blockbusters. You can find out which MCU film made the Oscar winner shed a tear here.
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Denzel Washington is undoubtedly one of the greats in Hollywood. With two Oscars under his belt (for “Glory” and “Training Day”) and an extremely impressive filmography, he has long been in the position of being able to choose his own roles. While many of his equally well-known colleagues are involved in major franchises such as the MCU, Washington has so far kept his distance here.
But even though he himself has never (yet) been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the epic comic blockbusters have not left him unscathed. In fact, there is a film from the Marvel Universe that deeply touched the Hollywood heavyweight.
An emotional milestone for black cinema
As part of the promotion for “Equalizer 2” in 2018, Denzel Washington revealed in an interview which Marvel film had last emotionally gripped him. Without hesitation, he named “Black Panther” and admitted: “I shed a tear.” Both films, “Equalizer 2” and “Black Panther,” premiered in 2018. In “Black Panther,” Chadwick Boseman, who died in August 2020, played the lead role of the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda.
The character of King T’Challa aka Black Panther was the very first black superhero in the US comic mainstream. Denzel Washington praised “Black Panther” for its significant contribution to the history of black cinema and emphasized how much it touched him: “I sat there […] and the 40 years I’ve been in this game came back to me.” Washington recognized the success of “Black Panther” as the fruit of the preparatory work that actors like Sidney Poitier and himself had done over decades. Poitier became the first African-American to win an Oscar for a leading role, while Washington became the second African-American actor to win the award.
Washington was particularly impressed with director Ryan Coogler and his ability to… Redefining the superhero genre. “Black Panther” not only turned out to be a real box office hit, but also a cultural phenomenon. Famous actors and musicians bought Black Panther movie tickets for young black people so they could see someone like them star on the big screen, something Washington and many others had long fought for.
Denzel Washington’s contribution to “Black Panther”
Although Washington wasn’t directly involved in Black Panther, he still had an impact on the film’s success. Almost 20 years earlier, the two-time Oscar winner had supported nine theater students from Howard University, a historically African-American university, with tuition fees so that they could take part in a summer theater program in Oxford. Among these students was the young “Black Panther” actor Chadwick Boseman. In 2019, a year before his death, Boseman thanked Washington with a moving speech at the AFI Life Achievement Award, which Washington received for his life’s work: “There would be no ‘Black Panther’ without Denzel Washington.”
By the way: From November 14, 2024 you can see Denzel Washington in the monumental film “Gladiator 2” in the cinema. Here is the trailer for it:
