Michael B. Jordan Tweeted 6 Years Ago About Wanting To Be Black Panther

A six-year-old tweet by Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan saw the actor announce he “would love” to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the African king-slash-superhero.

Fans on Reddit uncovered the tweet, dated June 8, 2012.

That year, Jordan starred in the small-scale found-footage Chronicle, which saw him play a high school teenager imbued with superpowers. The tweet came after Marvel Studios released superhero team up The Avengers that May.

Jordan would go on to play Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch, in Fox’s oft-maligned Fantastic Four reboot, directed by Chronicle‘s Josh Trank. A critical and commercial failure, Fant4stic put Jordan on the path to seeking superhero movie redemption.

“I’m a geek, I love this world,” Jordan told journalists visiting the Black Panther set. Despite the big miss that was Fant4stic, Jordan said he had “zero hesitations” about teaming with his Fruitvale Station and Creed director Ryan Coogler for Black Panther.

“I love being able to play in that fantastic kind of space, I looked at it kind of like it’s another shot and to get it right, to do it again,” Jordan said. “And especially with the team [cinematographer Rachel Morrison] again and Ryan, it’s just a very, very comfortable space for me. So it was the perfect space for me to take another risk like this, so it was no hesitation on that part.”

Though Jordan didn’t get to play Black Panther — that role went to Chadwick Boseman — he instead took on the role of the villainous Erik ‘Killmonger’ Stevens, who aims to usurp the throne of Wakanda and take over the role, and the powers, of Wakanda’s jungle cat-inspired protector.

The actor admitted the complex role took him to a dark place, saying his time as the notorious professional killer stuck with him afterwards.

Jordan drew inspiration from Heath Ledger’s performance as the maniacal Joker in The Dark Knight, saying Ledger’s role set the bar for comic book movie villains and he wanted to find that same “controlled rage.”

“The villains that are the most fun to watch for me are the ones that you can empathize with, you kind of know where they’re coming from, you can see their point of view,” Jordan said. “I tried to bring that groundedness to Killmonger.”

Black Panther recently opened to massive critical praise and big commercial success. The blockbuster, released stateside February 16, has already grossed more than $700 million worldwide.

Black Panther is now playing.