‘Black Panther’ Star Winston Duke Didn’t Know He Was Auditioning for a Marvel Movie

It has been a little over a year since Black Panther was released in theaters, but that’s not stopping the film’s cast from answering questions about the Oscar-nominated movie. In a recent interview with Metro, Winston Duke, who Marvel fans know best as M’Baku, revealed that when he auditioned for the film, he had no idea what it was for.

“I would have cut a finger nail off to work with any of the people individually, then being in a movie with all of them? That was out of this world,” he said. “And I didn’t even know what I was doing, I didn’t know what movie it was in the audition,” he added.

“They didn’t tell you so I auditioned without knowing what movie I was auditioning for,” he explained. “They were fake scripts! You just sign a non-disclosure agreement and then they send you sides (a part of a script provided to actors for use in an audition) that they just wrote, and you memorize it and work on it and flush it out and create character and go in and do your things. But I had no idea until I had a director session the third time around and saw it was Ryan Coogler, and I was like ‘ohhhh, lightbulb!’”

Not only did Duke get the part, but he went on to reprise the role in Avengers: Infinity War. It’s currently unclear if he’ll be showing up again in Avengers: Endgame, but he is listed as a cast member on IMDB, which is a promising sign. However, if you don’t get to see him on the big screen next month, you can catch him next week reuniting with Lupita Nyong’o for Jordan Peele’s latest horror flick, Us.

The actor also got to be a part of an exciting awards season this year, taking home a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He’s also nominated for an NAACP Image Award (which is taking place on March 30th) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.

Currently, the cast for the inevitable Black Panther 2 has not been announced, but we can’t imagine more Wakanda adventures without Duke.

Us is hitting theaters on March 22nd, and Avengers: Endgame will be released on April 26th.

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